Alt! Series 1
by TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Rose is in the Pete's world when she finds out her original Doctor will be making an appearance. Is this her second chance? Rose/Doctor. Rated M to be safe. I claim no ownership to Doctor Who or any of the cannon characters.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Rose Tyler looked up as the door opened and Dani walked in, followed by a brunette who looked about 19. Dani grinned at her. The brunette started going around the stuff.

'Rose, this is Carly,' Dani said. 'She's the Sovereign of the 21st Century, so don't mind her snooping about. She knows everything. And she's got some good news for us.'

'Good news?' Rose asked.

'Very good news,' Carly agreed. 'You know that this is an alternate from your birth dimension. Well, in this dimension, the Time War lasted longer, but with the same outcome.'

'So, it's still going on?' Rose asked, standing up.

'Not anymore,' Carly said. 'The Doctor should be regenerating into the form you first met…right…about…now.'

'When will he show up in Hendrick's?' Rose asked.

'Same date—month and day, that is—and around the same time as in your dimension,' Carly answered.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Rose**

Rose Tyler stepped into Hendrick's. The thing was Carly had told her that this Doctor would be exactly as the one she'd initially met was. That meant he was cynical and liked to insult other species—mainly humans. Rose was only coming to check if he was really here. Her dad had said, considering the circumstances, it would be better if Rose went alone. So, here she was sneaking around Hendrick's. She hid, just the way the Doctor, in her birth dimension, had taught her. Rose knew she could sit for hours if it meant she'd see the Doctor again.

She waited until the doors closed. There was no lottery money in this one. Rose assumed that was just a small difference. Nethertheless, when the doors closed, she stepped out of hiding and headed for the lift. She hit the button and it opened. Then she stepped in and waited for it to hit the bottom floor. She knew, to get the Doctor's attention, she'd have to call out the same things she did back when she'd really first met him. She stepped out of the lift.

'Wilson?' she called. 'Wilson, are you there?'

She went over and knocked on the door. Knowing he was already dead helped with this little performance. She was sure someone, at least, heard her. She passed a bit of graffiti on the wall. She tried to ignore the words: BAD WOLF.

'Wilson, I've got the lottery money! Look, I can't hang around, cause they're closing the shop.' She paused, waiting for it. She wasn't disappointed. A clanging sounded from behind her. She turned and headed towards the storeroom, injecting the required nervousness into her tone. 'Hello? Hello, Wilson? It's Rose. Wil…Wilson?'

She headed into the storeroom. Turning her head, she turned on the lights. The storeroom lit up dimly. She could see the living plastics and made her way forward. She'd gotten halfway through the storeroom, just like last time, when the door behind her slammed shut. She whipped around but she didn't run back. She didn't need to on account of the fact that she knew that it would be locked.

'Is that someone mucking about?' she called, knowing the Doctor, if he was here, would be able to hear her. 'Who is it?'

Almost as if on cue, the sound of plastic creaking reached her ears from behind her. She turned and pressed her lips together as she saw the living plastic creature started advancing on her. She backed away, mirroring her actions from years ago in the alternate of the same basement. And she repeated her words in the same tone. 'You got me! Very funny! All right! I've got the joke! Whose idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?'

She almost tripped on a bag of wares—_forgot about that_—and then her back hit the wall. They had her cornered again, but she knew she needed to be cornered to find out if Carly was right or not. She jammed her eyes shut while she primed herself to move in case the Doctor didn't show up.

The feel of a rough, calloused and very familiar hand brought all of her thoughts to a halt. Rose looked to her left and saw _Him_. His sharp features and dark nut hair were the same as she remembered.

'Run!' And his voice was the same as ever too.

She let him tug her out of harm's way. Her mind quickly worked as he pulled her through the corridor and past the living plastic dummies. This Doctor didn't know her at all and she wasn't as ignorant as she'd been when she'd first met him. The Dani in her dimension had said Rose was the one the Doctor needed. Supposing that was true, she'd have to make this him fascinated with her. The fact that she'd travelled with him made it easy and withholding the answers from him would help. He'd take her with him if only to solve the mystery that she was about to make herself. The Doctor loved a good mystery.

Once they were in the lift and the Doctor was yanking the arm of one of the dummies, Rose leaned on her knees and made a big deal of catching her breath. _Uh-oh. _The TARDIS key around her neck dangled forward. _On the other hand…_

That could be used. How would an everyday human have a key to the TARDIS? That was sure to get his attention if nothing else would. She straightened up as he got the arm and the doors closed.

'You pulled his arm off?' she asked. Unlike last time, it was a question of the purpose, rather than an exclamation of disbelief.

'Yup.' He tossed it to her. 'Plas—'

She was aware he was staring at the key that was now visibly resting just below her collar as she caught the arm. That was what had made him cut himself off. Rose looked at the arm and then up at him. He had an adorably puzzled expression on his face. She could get used to seeing that on him.

'Well, yes,' she said. 'But, what for?'

'You wouldn't understand,' he told her.

'I wouldn't be too sure.' She chuckled. 'I'm human, but I'm not just a stupid ape.'

He turned and looked at her strangely. She smiled cheekily. She'd used one of his catchphrases and he knew it. She could tell he was wondering how she knew. Rose decided she wasn't doing too badly.

The elevator dinged and the Doctor stepped out. Rose followed him and stood behind him as he soniced the elevator so it wouldn't work. He then turned around and looked at her, but he didn't say anything. He just studied her. With a suddenness that she'd missed, he moved forward, grabbed her arm and steered her out.

'Well! Can't have you sticking around here. Those are creatures of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this.' He pulled out the bomb and showed her as he steered her out the door. 'So I'm gonna go upstairs and blow it up. And I might well die in the process. But don't worry about me. No. You go home. Go. Go home and have your lovely bean on toast. Don't tell anyone about this because if you do, you'll get them killed.'

He slammed the door shut. Rose folded her arms, plastic arm still in hand, and waited. She didn't have to wait long.

He opened the door again and said. 'I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?'

'Rose.'

'Nice to meet you, Rose.' He held up the bomb. 'Run for your life!'

He slammed the door shut again. Rose rolled her eyes and walked away.

Dani looked at the arm in the Tyler Mansion. It was now in a specialised glass containment. The case wouldn't interrupt any signals. It was designed solely to keep the arm inside it. The Doctor would come looking for it soon. Dani felt the suns rays on her face through the window. She could hear little Tony playing with Pete, Jackie, Mickey and Jake outside. Rose was keeping near the front door, waiting for the Doctor to start sonicing the door. Morge sat opposite Dani. He listened to the little boy's laughter. Dani didn't know what had happened in the other dimension, but in this one Morge's alien saviour had been gunned down by the army.

Dani tipped her head back as Rose yanked open the door.

'What are you doing here?' the Doctor asked.

'I live here,' Rose answered.

'Well, what do you wanna do that for?' the Doctor asked.

'Not everyone has a TARDIS,' Rose said.

'How do you know about the TARDIS?' The Doctor sounded menacing now.

Rose wasn't intimidated though. She just grabbed his jacket and yanked him in. Then she closed the door and led him into the living room. The Doctor stopped when he saw Dani. Rose went to the maid, who had just finished dusting the mantelpiece.

'Could you get us some tea?' she asked.

The maid nodded and went to get the drinks. The Doctor then noticed the arm and crossed over to it. Dani propped her feet up on the table.

'That can wait,' she told him. 'You're not going to accomplish anything by running yourself ragged. I heard bits and pieces from the War.'

'Oh, yeah?' He was defensive now. 'How?'

'She's friends with a Handiconean,' Rose answered, coming back over.

'Ah.' The Doctor finally sat down.

Dani thought it was funny how Rose sat down at the same time, right next to him. The Doctor reached over and slowly drew the TARDIS key from around Rose's neck. He studied it for a moment and then looked up at her.

'This is a key to my ship?' he asked.

'Yes,' she said.

He looked at Dani.

'I didn't give it to her,' Dani stated. 'She's had it since I've known her.'

He looked back at Rose. 'Who gave it to you?'

'I could tell you,' she said with a slight smile. 'But that'd take all the fun of the mystery out.'

Dani snorted in laughter. 'True. And you always did love a good mystery, didn't you, boss?'

The Doctor dropped the key and sat back. The maid came back with four mugs of tea. They were set in front of the two humans and the two aliens.

'Rose and Morge are actually pretty experienced with aliens,' Dani told him. 'Morge was saved by one, and then the poor girl was gunned down, when he was four. And Rose…well, no fun in my just telling you that one, is there?'

'I can see what you're doing,' the Doctor said. 'And it's not going to work.'

He took the arm and stormed out. Dani huffed. She stood up.

'It's all right,' Rose told her. 'He doesn't want a companion right now. He thinks he deserves to be on his own.'

'Post-traumatic stress, then,' Morge murmured.

'Still think you'll go with him again?' Dani asked. 'He took the arm.'

'They'll come after me,' Rose responded. 'They think I'm connected to the Doctor.'

'Well, duh!' Dani exclaimed. 'You have a TARDIS key around your neck and they've seen you together. You may do it yet.'

Morge lit a cigarette and watched as Rose was followed by the…Auton, Dani had called it. Rose knew it was following her though; she was walking quickly, glancing back behind her. Morge was on a balcony where he had a bird's eye view of the whole thing. The Doctor was following a signal and he looked around the corner. Morge didn't see him roll his eyes, but he knew it happened. The Doctor waited until Rose passed him and then pulled her into the shadows. She didn't make a noise, like she was expecting it. She pressed her back against the wall as she watched the Doctor grab the Auton and start wrestling the head off. No sooner had he gotten the head off, Rose grabbed him and pulled him back from the rest of the body. The two of them ran into the TARDIS and Morge watched it dematerialise.

'You see,' the Doctor explained as he moved around the console, wiring in the Auton head, 'the arm was too simple, but a head is perfect. I can it to trace the signal back to the original source.' He stopped and turned around. 'Right. Where do you wanna start?'

'It's a TARDIS, right?' Rose asked. 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space?'

'Dani told you that?' the Doctor guessed.

'No,' Rose answered. 'Someone else did.'

'Who?' The Doctor thought over the people he knew to be in London. 'Sarah Jane Smith? Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stuart? Ace McShane?'

Rose looked behind him. 'The head's melting.'

'Melt—?' He turned and looked.

Sure enough, the head was melting down. It was taking the signal with it. He bolted over to the console.

'Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! It's fading! Come on! Almost there! Almost there! Oh!'

He turned and bolted for the door. Rose pushed the door open so he didn't have to bother. Then she followed him out.

'I lost the signal,' he groaned. 'I got so close!'

'Well, it can't be far away,' Rose told him. 'You've got the anti-plastic, right?'

He spun around. She knew what he was after and she knew how to stop it. He moved close to her.

'You know more than a stupid ape generally would,' he said. 'How?'

'My dad runs Torchwood.' Rose answered with only one explanation.

'What's Torchwood?' the Doctor asked, raising his eyebrows.

'It started with the Cybermen,' Rose said. 'This bloke called Lumic wanted to beat this illness he had and decided to preserve the human brain. Result: Cybermen.'

'Ugh.' The Doctor groaned. 'I thought I got rid of those bliming cyborgs, but there's more of them?'

'There were,' Rose said. 'Me, Dani, my dad, my ex-boyfriend, Mickey, and a few others managed to stop them and trap them. Then they tried to pass the void into an alternate world. Now they're stuck in the void. Dad decided we needed something to defend ourselves and Dani's the head advisor on that. Nothing goes past without her say-so.'

'How'd Dani get into that?' the Doctor asked.

'Lumic was using earpods,' Rose answered. 'They were transmitting a high-pitched noise, inaudible to the human race but Dani was another matter. It was giving her a splitting headache. She got some kind of special permission to not wear them as a special case. They thought it was just a harmless noise that people with abnormally sharp hearing picked up.'

'When really it was a signal.' The Doctor nodded to himself. 'All Lumic had to do was activate it and turn the entire human race into mindless drones that would march right into the conversion chamber. How'd you get out of it?'

'I wasn't wearing them at the time,' Rose answered. 'Neither was Mickey. Dad's shorted out right before they were activated. He got lucky. There was also a group that didn't wear the earpods in rebellion. Called themselves the Preachers.'

'Hmm,' the Doctor murmured. 'Was that your first encounter?'

'No,' Rose answered. 'My first encounter was when I was 19, working as a shop girl. Went on a errand, my life hasn't been the same since.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I assume this ties into how you got a TARDIS key?' he asked.

'Yeah,' Rose agreed. 'But don't we have a Nestine Consciousness to find first?'

'Oh? Right!' He refocused. 'First thing is to find out. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?'

'The transmitter?' Rose asked.

'Yeah,' the Doctor agreed. 'It should be somewhere slap-bang in the middle of London. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible.'

She pushed her hands into her pockets and said. 'You mean like the national landmark behind you?'

'Eh?' He turned around.

She was right. The London Eye was directly behind him and was perfect for the transmitter. He looked between it and Rose a few times.

'Oh.' He grinned from ear to ear. 'Fantastic!'

They both ran across the bridge. As they did, something made the Doctor reach over and grab Rose's hand. Dani had been right, he guessed. And this little yellow and pink ape gave him some feeling he'd never had before.

'Think of it.' he told her, 'Every artificial thing on Earth coming to life. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires.'

'The breast implants,' she added, looking like she was picking on him a bit.

He liked this one. She seemed to have some knowledge of him and she could laugh in the face of danger. He gave a small chuckle.

'Yeah,' he said. 'Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath.'

Rose ran over to the edge of the bridge. 'What about down here?'

The Doctor came and looked. 'Looks good to me.'

Rose remembered this and watched from the balcony as the Doctor went down.

'Am I addressing the Consciousness?' he asked.

Unlike last time, Rose could understand the words being said. She knew why too. She had been in the TARDIS. The girl had been in her head. She knew that Rose was from another dimension, had travelled with the Doctor and pulled another form of him back from the very same brink that this one was tethering on. She wanted her to save this version of the Doctor too, and that was just what Rose intended to do. The TARDIS already viewed her as a companion.

'**You are.**'

'Thank you,' the Doctor said. 'If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp-shunt technology, so might I suggest with the greatest respect that you shunt off?'

'**Who do you think you—**' the Consciousness began.

'I am talking!' the Doctor snapped. 'Now, listen. This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have barely learned how to walk, but they are capable of so much more. I am asking you on their behalf: please, just go.'

There were two autons coming up behind him.

'Doctor!' Rose called out a warning.

But it was too late—again—and he twisted around only to get caught. One of the autons pulled the vial of anti-plastic out of his jacket. Rose knew how this went. And she knew how it ended.

'**You came to kill me!**' the Consciousness accused.

'I was not attacking you!' the Doctor insisted.

'**Then what do you call this?**' the Consciousness demanded.

The panel opened and the TARDIS was sitting there.

'Oh, no!' the Doctor cried. 'Honestly, no!'

'**This is your craft?**' the Consciousness interrogated him.

'Yes, that's my ship,' the Doctor answered.

'**It is one of the crafts that sent me to this primitive place.**' The Consciousness snarled.

'No!' the Doctor yelled. 'That's not true! I was there! I fought in the war!'

'**You are the Doctor and you let my planet die!**'

'I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!'

'Doctor!' Rose called.

'It's the TARDIS!' the Doctor called. 'The Nestine's identified it as superior technology! It's terrified! Just leg it, Rose! Go, now!'

'No!' Rose called back.

'**Time Lord!**' the Consciousness roared.

Rose watched the activation signal go up.

'It's the activation signal!' the Doctor called. 'It's transmitting! Rose, please! Leg it, now! Just run!'

She did the same thing she did the last time this happened. She got over and grabbed an axe. She raised it and muttered to herself. 'I've been shot out of my own dimension. I've caused a regeneration. I've taken the vortex into my head. There's no way back. The walls have closed. So if this is the world's way of giving me another chance…'

She slammed the axe into the chain and yanked it down.

'…I'm not going to lose him again!'

She ran to the edge and swung down. She knocked one auton down and the lid came off the anti-plastic and spilled into the Consciousness as the Doctor flipped the other one over his shoulder and into the vat.

'Rose!' he called as she came back down.

She flew into his arms and he caught her. She felt the adrenaline rush, that Torchwood work never seemed to give her, once again as they both laughed. They looked down and then back at each other.

'Now we're in trouble!' the Doctor remarked.

The two of them bolted upstairs and then ran into the TARDIS. The Doctor dematerialised them and Rose dropped herself into the jump-seat as the column started moving. The Doctor looked at her and grinned.

'Making yourself comfy?' he asked.

'Yeah.' She beamed.

'Well, why not?' The Doctor laughed. He moved around and stood in front of her. 'Do you wanna come with me?'

'Hm.' Rose pretended to think about it. 'All of time and space versus London, early 21st century? What a no-brainer. Off we go, Time Lord.'


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Property dispute**

'Right, Rose Tyler.' The Doctor stood on one side of the console and Rose stood on another. 'You tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time?'

He watched her pretty face scrunch up in concentration. He could see she was considering both alternatives. Then she leaned forward.

'What's happening in…ooo, 4562?' she asked.

He grinned at her. 'You made that up on the spot, didn't you?'

'Yeah.' Rose smiled. 'Unless, of course, you don't think you can get there?'

_Oh. A challenge._ The Doctor grinned widely and ran around the console, manipulating the controls. Rose laughed as they moved through the vortex. She was clearly enjoying this as much as he was. The TARDIS stopped with a shudder and they both nearly fell over.

'Are we there?' Rose asked.

'Let's find out.' The Doctor laughed.

The two of them ran to the door and walked out. _All_ _right._ The Doctor would admit it but only to himself. He was more than a little fascinated with Rose Tyler. A London girl who defended the Earth from aliens, had encountered Cybermen, was friends with his old ward, had a key to his ship, knew about him and yet withheld just about everything about how and why just for fun. It was beyond fascinating to him.

And he'd hit the right year, too! Added bonus. They walked out and the Doctor immediately recognised the city of Geelong. Australia, then. Rose looked around at the high-tech and the array of clothes. She turned to the Doctor.

'Right time?' she asked.

The Doctor pointed up to a holographic news bulletin on the side of a building. The date read "9th of September, 4562". Rose chuckled as she examined the bulletin.

'Geelong?' she asked, 'That's in Australia, yeah?'

'Yup.'

The Doctor took Rose's hand and began to lead her through the city streets.

'Right, so by this time, everyone in the northern hemisphere's had a go at being the superpower,' he explained. 'They start looking for a superpower in the southern hemisphere. Problem is the only place really fit to be the superpower is the island-continent. Most don't think that's an option so they start fighting each other. War after war after war. Then Australia sends its artillery in and wins the war.'

'So Australia becomes the superpower,' Rose surmised.

'Everything is ruled by Australia now,' the Doctor said. 'Arts, culture, business.'

Rose would have responded, if not for the sound of the voice from behind them.

'From the sound of that, I'd say you're the Doctor.'

They turned around. There was a girl that looked about eighteen standing there. She had long wavy blonde hair and green eyes. She was dressed like she'd been going down to the pub for a party or something like that.

'And you are?' the Doctor asked.

'Kaia McAllen,' the girl answered. 'My sister sent me. There's a little town outside of the city. She said they're getting attacked by Silurians.'

Kaia was driving them there. Rose had never met Silurians, let alone heard of them. She leaned forward and asked, 'So what's a Silurian?'

'I knew I forgot to ask something,' Kaia muttered from beside the Doctor.

'They previous owners of the Earth,' the Doctor answered. 'When you humans were still primates, they were the dominant species of the Earth. _Homo Reptilia_. That was billions of years ago.'

'What happened to them?' Kaia asked.

'Their astronomers detected a planet heading for the Earth,' the Doctor answered. 'They thought it would be the apocalypse so they all retreated underground and into suspended animation to avoid it. It turned out to be the moon coming into alignment with the planet. So, they wake up and come up. One problem: they still see humans as those apes that they were back then. Far as they're concerned, mankind is just an ape that gotten above itself.'

'So it's basically a property dispute?' Rose asked.

'Yup,' the Doctor agreed. He looked at Kaia. 'How did your sister know they were Silurians. She's obviously more informed than you are.'

'Yeah.' Kaia laughed. 'That's how its always been. She's the Timeliner.'

'You're kidding!' The Doctor delighted at that bit of news.

'You can check it out when you see her,' Kaia told him.

Zara McAllen brushed her chestnut hair back as she worked everything out. She was being followed by a worried and aggravated mother. And that mother was grating on her nerves more than a bit.

'All I'm saying is we have to call the army,' she said. 'They'll blow them out of the water.'

'No!' Zara snapped, whipping around, finally fed up. 'They'll blow _us _out of the water! I get that you're worried, but trigger-happiness is not going to be productive. Don't go around like a bad wolf or something. All that'll do is start a war! Just sit down and shut up! They're not aliens! They were here first! Trust me: the guy coming, and he's the only one that can fix this, is not as pleasant and agreeable as I am. So if you're scared, sit down and shut up.'

She stormed away in a huff. That even tried her patience. The sound of someone crying out in pain drew her attention and Zara shot over to one of the poison victims. He was haemorrhaging. The poison was probably deep in his system. This was the third one. She knew there was a cure but she didn't happen to have it, or the ingredients for it, on hand.

The door banged open as Kaia led the Doctor and Rose Tyler in. In the next moment—he could certainly move fast—the Doctor was beside her with a syringe. Zara knew what was in that tube the Doctor injected into the man. It was the cure to the Silurian venom.

'Had to stop at your ship, huh?' Zara asked.

'Yeah.' The Doctor shrugged. 'Silurians. Venom in the tongue. Doesn't hurt to be prepared with the whole thing, does it?'

'Fair point.' Zara shrugged.

The Doctor looked around. 'Camp in a church. Strong walls, made mostly of stone. Nice fort.'

'That's what I thought,' Zara said. 'The Silurians are out there. They come mostly at night. Unfortunately, these people are so freaking scared that I can't leave them here without someone with a level head to look after them.'

One human stood up, offended. 'We're not children!'

'You could've fooled me!' the Doctor snapped back with such an air of finality that the man shut up, sat back down and brooded.

'Kaia and I can stay up and look after them, can't we, Kaia?' Rose suggested.

'Of course,' Kaia agreed. 'That makes sense. The two that know the most about the Silurians going down to confront them.'

Zara had never been in a time machine, as such, but that didn't mean she didn't know what to expect. She helped the Doctor pilot the TARDIS down to the Silurian colony. She already knew what the Doctor didn't: Rose's story. And that was something in itself. She'd come to this man because he was there and he needed help and she loved him so much.

She'd been banished from her own dimension by the stupidity of a few presumptuous humans. This was her second chance with him and she was taking it firmly with both hands. The Doctor was already falling in love with her too, whether he was going to admit it or not. They landed with a thump.

'Not to nitpick,' Zara said. 'But you shake because you don't turn the stabilisers on and you make that noise because you leave the brakes on.'

The Doctor shot her a dark look. She just laughed.

'Mind you, I can't really talk,' she said. 'I travel through time in a blue 1987 Toyota Ute that I amped up. More than a few times I've had to steal it back from people that got a bit too curious. I'm sure you've had to take the TARDIS back from the same kind of people.'

He grinned. 'You can say that again.'

They cautiously stepped out of the TARDIS, Zara first, and the Doctor closed the door behind them. Zara sharpened her senses. They'd already been detected and the Silurians were coming after them, hostile.

'They know we're here,' Zara said. 'They're coming after us and want to knock us out. I figure they deserve a good scare, don't you?'

'So you can freeze time?'

'Cake,' Zara answered. 'And, apparently, you'll feel it.'

'Looking forward to it,' the Doctor told her.

Kaia and Rose sat at the altar, watching the humans milling around. A few of them cast glares up to the two blondes while others cast them grateful looks and, still, others cast them hopeful looks.

'So what is the Timeliner?' Rose asked Kaia.

'A time being,' Kaia answered. 'Fairly similar to the Time Lords but born as a human. That gave mum quite a few headaches. There is another difference between my sister and the Doctor.'

'What's that?' Rose asked.

'The Doctor sees the span of time,' Kaia said. 'Zara sees timelines, hence the name. She knows all about everyone she meets: how they began, how they'll end, everything in between. On top of that she can manipulate time with her mind alone, whereas most need a machine or something to do that.'

'Where did the power come from?' Rose asked. 'It didn't just pop out of nowhere, did it?'

'No,' Kaia answered. 'No. It belonged to a race called the Time Twisters. They were born with these powers at the dawn of the universe. They became corrupt over time and they went back to try and shape the universe to their design. But they were stopped by the first three Time Lords: Rassilon, Omega and the Other. Zara told me about it. That fight was known as the First Great Time War. At the end, there was only the power left. They left it there and the Earth formed around it. The power was sentient and it first picked the human race and then, as we evolved, it sought out an appropriate candidate for the power. It picked Zara. Still not sure why her in particular.'

'What about Rassilon, Omega and the Other?' Rose asked. 'What happened to them?'

'Omega was sacrificed, and I use the term lightly because he survived, into some star so they could utilise time travel.' Kaia scowled. 'Last anyone heard, he was very bitter. The Doctor—three of them—had to stop him. Rassilon ruled Gallifrey for…a billion years, I think it was, and became corrupt with the Last Great Time War. The Other…no one knows what happened to the Other. He just, sort of, disappeared. There was a bit of speculation that he reduced himself and laid himself in a loom—that's how Time Lords are born—some Gallifreyans half-speculated that the Other reincarnated himself as the Doctor himself.'

'How come?' Rose asked.

'The Other apparently had a free spirit, like the Doctor,' Kaia answered. 'The whole Time Lord thing with not interfering and just sitting there, watching, was all Rassilon. Rassilon always looked down on other species. Word has it that the Other thought the universe was the most wonderful place. Seems he hated sitting still and he liked to gloat when he got one over on other people. He liked blowing things up and had a strong sense of justice. He was also prone to childishness. Sound familiar?'

'Because they were so similar?' Rose asked.

'According to Zara,' Kaia agreed. 'And she's the person to ask.'

'So if they were so similar, why did they half-speculate?' Rose asked.

'Zara told me, despite what the Doctor will tell you, he was actually ridiculed on Gallifrey,' Kaia answered. 'He didn't follow the rules, he made things up as he went along and he never read textbooks because they were boring. He was a joke…until they needed him to fight Daleks or Cybermen or Sontarans or something like that. Then it was all "oh, Doctor, you're the best man for the job". I heard that and I'm like, "I bet they wouldn't react well to being called on that".'

'Probably not, no,' Rose said. 'Do you think he's the Other?'

'I don't know,' Kaia answered. 'I think Zara would be the only one that would know that one, having seen his timeline and all. I don't think he would have allowed himself to remember if he is.'

Rose nodded. Kaia suddenly turned her gaze up.

'What?' Rose asked.

'We're getting attacked,' Kaia said. 'They're massing on us.'

The Doctor had to admit, he was impressed. And he had felt it when she froze the Silurians in place. The Doctor smiled and approached the leader.

'My friend will release you,' he said. 'But first you must understand I am not human but I do happen to like them and it's ridiculous for anyone to get killed over a property dispute.'

Zara clicked her fingers and the Silurians were released. The subordinates still held their weapons at the ready, but were now aware of how powerless they really were. The leader hissed at the Doctor.

'A property dispute?' he hissed. 'Is that what you call this?'

'Well, you think the planet belongs to you, the humans think the planet belongs to them. You're attacking them over the matter.' The Doctor shrugged. 'You can call it what you will, but it all boils down to a property dispute.'

The leader hissed at him. One came out from behind the troops though, seeming more fascinated than hostile. He was clearly one of their medicals.

'You're not human?' he asked. 'But you look exactly like one.'

'Only on the outside,' the Doctor told him. 'Got two hearts, respiratory bypass and a self-renewing cell structure. Oh, and I need human germs to stay alive.'

'Which is odd, considering you're from so far away,' Zara remarked.

'Is she human?' the Silurian asked.

'Yes,' the Doctor answered. 'But she's also the Timeliner.'

'What's the Timeliner?' he asked.

'Enough, Katrac!' the leader snapped. 'They're here to defend the apes!'

'Do I look or act like the primates that were running around 36 million years ago?' Zara asked. 'My race has evolved and you're going to have to get used to it.'

Katrac stared at her while the leader soldier got in Zara's face. Of course Zara didn't even flinch.

'You ape!' the leader snarled. 'Who do you think you are?'

'I'm the Timeliner,' Zara repeated. 'Are you deaf?'

Katrac knew that human—Zara—could probably get them out, but Jooal, head of the defence units, was trigger-happy. He still saw the humans as apes. Zara had a point. She was different from the way the homo sapiens had been. And all humans looked like that.

Jooal wouldn't listen to that, though. He was so certain they were still apes and that the planet was overrun. Katrac realised that "overrun" was a bad word. The Doctor was right. It was all just a property dispute that didn't need to be solved with genocide. The problem was Jooal wouldn't listen to that, so Katrac decided a higher authority needed to be alerted.

Yelap was leading the Silurian army to attack the apes. They were hiding in a huge stone building. Yelap levelled the laser blaster at it and blew the door in. They marched in and found only two humans left. Apparently, they'd pushed the others into a back room. Both of the remaining humans were female. Yelap shot at the closest one but the laser blast went right through the female's body as if she wasn't even there. All the Silurians froze and stared in confusion. The female in question turned to them.

'You can't kill me,' she told them. 'I'm already dead.'

The other female stepped up beside her. 'In case you've failed to notice, evolution as occurred since you've been gone. We're not quite the apes you hunted for sport and we are not going to let you kill anyone else.'

'And how do you miserable _apes _plan to stop us?' Yelap demanded.

'By electrokinetic energy,' the dead female answered in a low voice.

The Doctor and Zara watched the Silurians that were holding them up. Jooal was demanding answers of them. The point was that he seemed to have no manners or diplomacy. Zara leaned back, a smirk on her face and remarked, 'You know, even we "apes", as you call us believe in negotiation in military types. I should think that says we have more civility than you now, wouldn't you say, Doctor?'

He grinned too. He obviously saw the game as it was. 'You're definitely at one of your best civilised states for your planet, I'll say that.'

'Negotiation is for ambassadors,' Jooal hissed.

'Then why don't you step aside and let me negotiate?' This was said by the Ambassador as he came in, followed by Katrac.

'Katrac, I told you…' Jooal tried to tell him off.

'Save it, Jooal,' the Ambassador told him. He looked at Katrac. 'The female is human?'

'Yes, sir.'

The Ambassador looked at Zara. 'You have evolved. And the fact that you are wearing garments shows that you are now a civilised species.' He turned to Jooal. 'Call off your soldiers, Jooal. I'll call you if I need you.'

He hissed but moved out. The soldiers followed him. The Ambassador looked at Zara.

'Do you have a name, human?' he asked.

'Zara.'

Rose waited for the Doctor. He somehow managed to get the TARDIS to materialise right in front of her. Zara and the Doctor stepped out. The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS as Zara stopped a few meters off and waited. She didn't have to wait long. Kaia appeared out of thin air.

'So?' she asked.

'They're willing to lay low until they can hash this out with us humans,' Zara answered. 'I'm going to have to find some people who are worth their weight in salt before those negotiations can start.'

'Why don't you start with Jack?' Kaia suggested.

Zara nodded. Then she grinned at Rose and the Doctor. 'See you around.'

The two McAllen sisters walked over to their ute. Rose went over to the Doctor.

'Does it work?' she asked.

'Yeah,' the Doctor said. 'Not all the Silurians are happy about it, mind you, and it does start a war. But that usually happens. Thing settle down by the year 4700.'

'All right.'

He laughed to himself. She looked at him curiously.

'What?' she asked.

'Nothing,' he told her. 'I've just never seen a human take this so calmly.'

'Lots about me you don't know.'

'And I look forward to finding out whatever it is you're hiding from me, Rose Tyler.' He grinned. 'And I will find out.'

She grinned and then leaned up, pecking him on the cheek. He had an appropriately stunned look on his face. She laughed and ducked into the TARDIS. After a moment, he followed her.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Unquiet Dead**

'Now,' the Doctor called over the noise, 'we've had a look at the future. Let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?'

'What happens in 1860?' Rose asked.

'I don't know,' he said. 'Hold on!'

He threw a lever. The TARDIS slammed to a stop and the Doctor and Rose both hit the ground, laughing. Rose had forgotten how much she loved this life. And she sure as hell was not going to let him go again, no matter how much he tried to protect her.

'Blimey!' Rose laughed.

'You're telling me.' The pulled himself up. 'You all right?'

'Think so.' She was still laughing a bit. 'Nothing broken. Where are we?'

'I did it! Give the man a medal! Earth, Naples, 1860, December 24th.'

'That's so weird.' Rose grinned. 'It's Christmas.'

The Doctor grinned and gestured to the door.

'Think about it, though,' Rose stated. 'Christmas, 1860. It happened once. Just once, and it's gone. It's finished. It'll never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still.'

'Not a bad life?' the Doctor asked.

'Better with two.' Rose responded. She looked down at her clothes. 'So, I guess you'll want me to change?'

'Hm?' He glanced down at her clothes. 'Oh, yeah. Well, if you don't, they'll be after us with pitchforks, won't they? Wardrobe's down the corridor. Third door on the right.'

'Right.' Rose ran back to change.

She knew the way to the wardrobe by heart by now. She remembered the dress she'd worn in her original dimension. She hoped the TARDIS would have that dress in this dimension. Sure enough, there it was. She grinned impishly as she pulled it on.

The Doctor was tinkering as he waited for Rose. Why females of every species took forever to change was a bit beyond him. He assumed it was just the oestrogen in their brains that made them want to look as perfect as they possibly could. He looked up as he heard her walk across the grating floor and stop just above him. He was stunned speechless. She looked…

'Blimey!'

'Don't laugh,' She told him, while laughing herself.

'You look beautiful,' He said before he could stop himself.

She grinned at him, looking truly flattered. He just realised what he'd said. _Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! _He'd never fancied a human before. Of course, before it'd been outlawed. Time Lords were forbidden from forming attachments with any other species. For the time when he was cut off from the rest of the Time Lords—the exile—they hadn't known that he actually cared about the people he took on and travelled with. When they found out at the end of the exile, he was defended by Romana who said that he never considered them as any more that assistants. And he never thought of them as anything else. That was the word he used to describe them. It wasn't a problem when he had a clear parent-child relationship with Ace because he'd already legalised those kinds of relationships through the whole ordeal when the Time Lords had moved the Earth and renamed it and he had to reverse that.

'Considering.' He amended very quickly.

'Considering what?' she demanded. 'That I'm human?'

'Yup.' The Doctor jumped up. 'Come on!'

'You stay there,' Rose stated, moving around to the door. 'You've done this before. This is mine!'

He followed her out. She stared around with slight tears in her eyes. He smiled and touched her shoulder. She looked back at him and he, again, was stunned. Not many people could do that to him. Either way, he pushed it aside and asked, 'You all right?'

'Yeah,' she said. 'Just can't believe it.'

'Well, you better,' he told her with a big grin. He offered her his arm, like the gentleman he wasn't, and she took it. 'Here we go. History.'

'Gwyneth!' Sneed, the undertaker, called. 'Where are you girl? Gwyneth!'

A young servant girl came in.

'Where've you been?' Sneed demanded. 'I was shouting.'

'I was down in the stables, sir, breaking the ice for old Sampson,' Gwyneth answered.

'Well, get back out there and harness him back up,' he told her.

'Whatever for, sir?' she asked.

'It's happened again,' he answered. 'The stiffs are getting lively again. Mr. Redpath's grandmother, she's up and on her feet out there somewhere, on the streets. We've got to find her.'

'Mr. Sneed, for shame!' Gwyneth exclaimed. 'How many more times? It's ungodly!'

'Don't look at me like it's my fault!' Sneed told her. 'Now come on. Hurry up. She was 86. She can't have got far.'

'What about Mr. Redpath?' Gwyneth asked. 'Did you deal with him?'

'No,' Sneed answered. 'She did.'

'Oh, that's awful, sir,' Gwyneth murmured. 'I know it's not my place. And, please, forgive me for talking out of turn, sir. But this is getting beyond now. Something terrible is happening in this house and we've got to get help.'

'And we will!' Sneed told her. 'As soon as I get that dead old woman locked up safe and sound. Now, stop prevaricating, girl. Get the hearse ready. We're going body-snatching!'

The Doctor frowned at the newspaper in his hands. 'I got the flight a bit wrong.'

'I don't care,' she told him.

'It's not 1860, it's 1869.'

'I don't care.'

'And it's not Naples.'

'I don't care.'

'It's Cardiff.' Disgust coloured his tone.

Rose slowed down a bit. 'Right…' This she cared about.

She cared about this because she knew what it meant. _The Gelth. _Briefly, she considered trying to save Gwyneth. But the only way to do that would be to tell the Doctor about the Gelth. Then the issue of how she knew would come up and she couldn't do that. The mystery would be gone and there was no way he was in love with her yet. He could easily just leave her back home because she was no longer interesting. A part of her knew that was stupid. After the mystery was solved, he'd want to know how she got stuck here. Either way, the possibility terrified her. All she knew was that she wouldn't support him trying to save the Gelth.

The first thing she had to do was get kidnapped. That was the easy part. She just had to look at the body to get kidnapped. Bonus: it went exactly as it had gone in her original dimension.

_Rose. Kidnapped. _What was this girl? Jeopardy-friendly? The servant girl of the undertakers opened the door.

'I'm sorry, sir,' she told him. 'We're closed.'

'Nonsense.' Charles Dickens scoffed. 'Since when does an undertaker keep office hours. The dead don't die on schedule.'

Rose looked up and watched the dead rise. She didn't waste any time asking if they were kidding this time, because she knew they weren't. She just jumped to her feet and ran to the door. _Locked! _Just like last time. So she slammed on the door and yelled for help.

'That's her!'

The Doctor ran towards Rose's screams.

'How dare you sir!' the undertaker exclaimed, but the Doctor completely ignored him, except for pushing past him.

'I told you…' He heard him speak again. 'This is my house!'

The Doctor kicked the door open. 'I think this is my dance.' He pulled Rose into his arms and away from the dead.

'It's a trick,' Charles stated. 'We're under some mesmeric influence, surely.'

'No, we're not,' the Doctor disputed. 'The dead are walking.' He looked at Rose. 'Hi.'

'Hi.' She looked back at Charles. 'Who's your friend?'

'Charles Dickens.'

'Okay.'

He turned back to the possessed dead.

'My name's the Doctor,' he said. 'Who are you, then? What do you want?'

'Failing,' they chorused. 'Open the Rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us.'

They shrieked as they left the bodies and went into the lamps. The bodies dropped to the ground and everybody stared at them.

'First you drug me,' Rose snapped at Sneed. 'Then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man!'

'I won't be spoken to like this!' Sneed tried, but she ignored him.

'Then you stuff me in a room full of zombies! And if that isn't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on! Talk!'

The Doctor was grinning throughout her whole tirade.

'It's not my fault!' Sneed defended. 'It's this house!' Then he seemed to calm down. 'It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until about three months back. And then the stiffs…'

Charles gave him a look.

'The…um…the dear departed…' Sneed amended, '…started getting restless.'

'Tommyrot,' Charles stated.

'You witnessed it!' Sneed insisted. 'Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps…'

'Two sugars, sir,' Gwyneth stated as he went on. 'Just the way you like it.'

The Doctor watched her leave curiously, before returning his attention to the conversation.

'…one other fella who used to be a Sexton almost walked into his own memorial service,' Sneed continued. 'Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned.'

'Morbid fancy,' Charles stated, standing up.

'Oh, come on, Charles, you were there,' the Doctor said.

'I saw nothing but an illusion,' Charles insisted.

'If you're going to deny it, then shut up.' The Doctor turned back to Sneed. 'What about the gas?'

'Oh, that's new, sir,' he told him. 'Never seen anything like that. No.'

'Means it's getting stronger,' the Doctor stated. 'The Rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through.'

'What the Rift?' Rose asked.

'A weak point in time and space,' the Doctor answered. 'A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.'

'That's how I got the house so cheap,' Sneed concluded. 'Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air. And a feeling like a shadow passing over your Soul.'

Only the Doctor noticed Charles walk out of the room.

'Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business,' Sneed continued after a short pause. 'Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade such as mine.'

'Pity us,' the creatures said. 'Pity the Gelth.'

'What happened?' the Doctor asked.

'A war,' the Gelth answered. 'Invisible to lower life forms. It destroyed most of us. We are few in number. We need vessels.'

'The dead?' the Doctor asked.

'Yes,' the Gelth answered. 'We need the dead bodies.'

'You can't,' Rose insisted.

'Why not?' the Doctor asked.

'Because they're dead people,' Rose answered. 'We can't just take dead bodies and recycle them.'

'Of course we can,' the Doctor argued.

Rose knew he wouldn't agree with her until it was too late but she wasn't going to be submissive about it. Okay, he felt guilty, she could understand that. But, didn't it occur to him that anything that used dead bodies as vessels was bad news?

The Doctor was getting sick of Rose's refusal to see that this was necessary. She huffed as she followed him into the morgue. The others were occupied with looking around and she faced him.

'Just because you feel guilty is no reason to do this,' Rose snapped quietly, so the other humans wouldn't hear. 'How do you know they're even telling the truth?'

'A dying race wouldn't lie,' the Doctor responded tightly. 'And how do you mean "feel guilty"?'

'The Time War…' she answered, '…was between the Time Lords and the Daleks, wasn't it? You survived. You're the last of the Time Lords so you feel guilty.'

_She knows about the Time War. She knows I'm the only survivor. _He tried to stare her down. Either he wasn't putting enough effort into it or she was not intimidated by it. He got the feeling it was the former.

'How do you know about that?' he demanded.

'Does it matter?' she retorted. 'How do you know they aren't lying?'

'Dying races don't lie,' he repeated.

'What if they're not dying?' she challenged. 'What if they just want bodies?'

'You're young, so I'll excuse that,' he patronised.

The Gelth suddenly appeared in the room. They came under the archway, drawing all attention to them.

'The Rift is here,' they stated.

Gwyneth came and stood under them, calling to the angels. The instant they could pass through though, they turned from blue to red. The Doctor suddenly realised that he'd been wrong and Rose had been right. They'd lied. That wasn't "few in number".

'You said you were few in number!' Charles exclaimed.

'A few billion!' The Gelth sneered.

'Mr. Sneed, look out!' Rose yelled, just liked last time, but it was too late.

His neck had been snapped. The Gelth went into him and he dropped to his knees. It was strange how, even though she knew they'd get out of this, terrified Rose felt.

'I think it's gone a little bit wrong,' the Doctor stated.

The Gelth in Sneed looked up at them. 'I have joined the Legions of the Gelth. Come march with us.'

Then they all spoke in unison. 'We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead.'

The Doctor automatically moved his arm protectively in front of Rose. She would have smiled in any other circumstances.

'Gwyneth!' the Doctor yelled. 'Stop them! Send them back! Now!'

But she couldn't hear him.

'Three more bodies,' they chanted. 'Make them vessels for the Gelth.'

'Doctor!' Charles called. 'I can't…I…I…I'm sorry!'

The Doctor pushed Rose into the cell and locked it.

'This new world of yours is too much for me!' Charles called. 'I'm so…'

But there was a screech and he took off.

'Give yourselves to glory,' the Gelth chanted reaching through the bars. 'Sacrifice your lives to the Gelth.'

'I trusted you!' the Doctor hissed. 'I pitied you!'

'We don't want your pity,' the Gelth chanted. 'We want this world and all its flesh.'

'Not while I'm alive,' he stated.

'Then live no more!'

Charles ran outside but ran further when he saw the Gelth following him. Its screech caused him to stop and turn.

'Failing! Atmosphere hostile!'

It was sucked into the lamp and the answer came into Charles' head.

'Gas,' he murmured. 'The gas!'

He ran back.

'I'm sorry,' the Doctor suddenly said.

'Why?' She looked at him.

'You were born in the 20th century and you're gonna die in the 19th and it's all my fault,' he responded. 'I brought you here.'

'It's not your fault,' she told him. 'I wanted to come.'

'What about me?' he asked. 'I saw the Fall of Troy. World War V. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party and now I'm gonna die in a dungeon.' He looked forward and distaste coloured his tone. 'In Cardiff.'

'It's not just dying,' Rose stated. 'It's becoming one of them. We'll go down fighting, yeah?'

'Yeah.' The Doctor nodded.

'Together?' Rose asked.

'Yeah.'

Their hands came together and their fingers entwined. The Doctor looked right at her.

'I'm so glad I met you.'

She looked back at him. 'Me too.'

They both grinned at each other.

'Doctor!' Charles suddenly ran back into the room. 'Doctor! Turn off the flame! Turn up the gas! Now, fill the room! All of it! Now!'

'What are you doing?' the Doctor asked, looking at him as if he was crazy.

'Turn it all up!' he yelled. 'Flood the place!'

'Brilliant,' the Doctor stated. 'Gas!'

'Draw them out of the bodies?' Rose asked.

'Like poison from a wound!' the Doctor agreed.

The dead suddenly turned and started advancing on Charles, growling like dogs.

'I hope…oh Lord,' Charles muttered. 'I hope this theory will be validated quickly, if not immediately.'

'Plenty more.' The Doctor ripped a pipeline out and causing gas to flow out like a dam burst.

Immediately the screeching started again and the Gelth, as predicted, were drawn from the hosts like poison from a wound and the bodies dropped dead as they really were. The Doctor ran over to Gwyneth with Rose close behind him.

'Gwyneth!' the Doctor called to her. 'Send them back! They lied! They're not angels!'

This time she heard him and her body sagged in exhaustion.

'Liars?' she murmured.

'Look at me,' he told her. 'If your mother and father could look now and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now, send them back!'

'Can't breathe,' Rose wheezed.

'Charles, get her out,' the Doctor told the novelist.

Knowing it was pointless to try and save Gwyneth, Rose went with Charles. She knew what the Doctor would find.

Rose saw the Doctor jump out of the way of the explosion and she and Charles ran over to him as he stood up. Rose and the Doctor stared at each other for a moment before Rose realised.

'She was already dead?' she murmured.

'I'm sorry,' he told her. 'She closed the Rift.'

'At such a cost,' Charles stated. 'The poor child.'

'I think she had been from the minute she stood in that arch,' the Doctor answered.

'There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,' Charles quoted. 'Even for you, Doctor.'

'She saved the world,' Rose murmured. 'A servant girl. No one will ever know.'

'Doesn't he die in 1870?' Rose asked. 'He won't be able to write about the blue ghosts then?'

'Clever girl,' The Doctor congratulated her. 'He'll never get to tell his story.'

'It's a shame, really,' Rose murmured. 'He was so nice.'

'But, in your time he was already dead,' the Doctor pointed out, shrugging. 'We've brought him back to life. And he's now alive more than he's ever been. Old Charlie Boy. Let's give him one last surprise.'

Rose nodded and watched as the Doctor set the coordinates and they dematerialised.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Aliens of London**

Jackie looked out the window and watched the TARDIS materialise. At least it wasn't a year later again. Rose walked out and looked around. She looked at the house and then turned around to face the Doctor, who was leaning against the TARDIS. Rose grinned at him. Jackie smiled sadly. The plus was that she knew the Doctor would look after her daughter and they'd always visit because Rose would want to check on things at home.

'How long have I been gone?' Rose asked.

'About twelve hours,' the Doctor answered.

Rose's grin widened and she started heading towards the front door. She remembered the last time she'd heard that. It turned out to be twelve months. Of course, it wouldn't be quite so messy if that'd happened again. This time, if she came back a year late, her family would know where she had been the whole time.

'All right, I'm gonna go and check on my family,' she said.

'What are you gonna tell them?' the Doctor asked.

'Well, they're all familiar with aliens,' she told him. 'No big deal.'

'Torchwood a family business?' He laughed.

'In a manner of speaking.' She pointed at him. 'Don't you go disappearing.'

She ran into the house. Her mother immediately greeted her with a hug.

'How long was I gone?' she asked.

'Just a day,' Jackie answered. 'He actually got it right this time.'

'Does dad know about the Slitheen?' Rose asked.

'I told him what happened last time,' Jackie agreed. 'He's expecting them.'

'Good.'

The Doctor guessed he could understand that Rose wanted to stick around for a little bit. He just wished she didn't. She hadn't been kidding when she said her whole family were in on the alien business. Her father—Pete—handed him a file on Lumic's Cybermen. That was good. If he ever had to fight these ones, at least he knew their weakness. Every piece of technology was compatible with every other piece of technology. That's how they were defeated the first time.

'The main problem, after that, was that everyone knew about them,' Pete explained to him when he was done. 'Some people started saying we should let them out. They were living creatures and we shouldn't lock them up.'

'If you let them out, they just would have tried again,' the Doctor muttered.

'Yeah, we knew that,' Pete said. 'Those "some people" didn't seem to grasp the concept of "no emotions", though.'

_Stupid apes. _The Doctor thought.

'So what happened?' he asked.

'In, to borrow Mickey's phrase, a parallel world the Torchwood, which was about a hundred years older, found a sphere of some kind,' Pete explained. 'It fell out of the void. They saw the hole and decided to make it bigger. The Cybermen used that to slowly sneak into that dimension.'

'And they took over that Earth?' the Doctor asked.

'For about a day.' Pete nodded. 'That Earth had some pretty sharp defenders too and one of them ripped open the void, had everything doused in void energy sucked in and then the void snapped shut.'

'Hm,' the Doctor mused. 'Clever. How do you know?'

'Well, we weren't quite so clever.' Pete looked embarrassed. 'We followed the Cybermen into that dimension. The guy who stopped the Cybermen took one look at what we were doing and told us off. We were ripping a hole in the universe everytime we jumped. He did send us home before he ripped the void open though.'

'And that's how you got rid of the Cybermen, then?' the Doctor asked.

'Yes.'

The Doctor considered that Pete probably knew how Rose knew as much as she did and he went to ask. He was cut off by a loud sound and turned to look. He could barely believe what he was seeing. An alien spaceship was crash-landing in London. The Doctor almost thought it was genuine. Then it hit Big Ben. _That was too perfect._

Pete grabbed his mobile and dialled. 'This is Director Tyler. Pick up whatever's in that ship and close off the centre of London.' He hung up. 'Should be at the base in twenty minutes.'

'Where is your base?' the Doctor asked.

'Canary Wharf.'

Three large, overweight people walked into the Cabinet room in downing street. If someone was to look at them, they would identify them as Joseph Green, acting Prime Minister, Margaret Blaine of MI5 and Oliver Charles, Transport Liaison Officer. Green dropped the suitcase in his hand on the table and all three started laughing.

Dani and Morge walked into the lab. There was something lying there, under the sheet. Dani went over and lifted it. She cocked an eyebrow and then lowered the sheet again before turning to the head scientist, Dr. Sato.

'Is Pete coming?' she asked.

'Yes,' Dr. Sato answered. 'And he's bringing the Doctor and Commander Tyler with him.'

'Good.' She grinned at Morge. 'I wonder how the Doctor will react to Rose being called "Commander Tyler".'

'Like you don't already know.' Morge scoffed.

_Commander Tyler? _She was pretty high up on staff here. He looked at her. From what he'd of her seen so far, he'd say that this lot had tracked down the Nestine's signal in Hendrick's and she had gone to check it out. And she was interested in him for some reason. But why? Dani trusted her, so she wouldn't be the kind to use time travel for her own personal gain. It was something else. Maybe something to do with how she became so experienced with aliens in the first place. Her apparent experience was unlike anything he'd ever seen in this time period, even for someone working in a place like this.

They came into a room that looked a lot like a laboratory. Dani and Morge were already there with another three humans, standing over a covered body. They looked up as the Doctor, Rose and Pete walked in.

'Is that the alien?' Pete asked.

Dani was the one that answered. 'Sure. If you call this…' she yanked the sheet off the body, '…an alien.'

The Doctor scowled.

'That's not an alien,' Pete announced.

'It's just a pig,' the blonde boy said.

Morge snatched the clipboard from the human woman beside him. He crossed the lab and handed it to the Doctor.

'This is the technology augmenting its brain,' he said.

The Doctor looked at it. Rose and Pete looked over his shoulders to read it too.

'It's more like a mermaid,' The Doctor said, moving over to the pig. 'Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the head of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now, someone's taken a pig, stuck bits in its brain and made it dive-bomb. It must've been terrified. Is it alive, Dani?'

'It's alive,' Dani agreed, stroking the pig's head. 'Just in shock and rendered into a death-like comatose state.'

'Huh?' the black human man asked.

'It's in a coma, Mickey,' Rose clarified. 'It'll wake up sooner or later.'

'But that's not ordinary technology,' Pete announced. 'So aliens are faking aliens?'

'And we've gotta figure out why,' Dani said.

'The nations of the world are watching the United Kingdom!' General Asquith, of the British Army, announced loudly as he led Green, Blaine and Charles into the Cabinet room, 'Your behaviour has been shameful, sir.'

'Well, it has all been a bit of a shock!' Green defended him.

'This is the greatest crisis of the 21st century and you've done nothing!' Asquith wasn't having any excuses. 'We haven't even started the vaccination program.'

'Sorry!' Green paused. 'Sorry, I thought I was Prime Minister now.'

'Only by default,' Asquith announced.

'Oh, that's not fair,' Green complained. 'I've been having such fun.'

'You think this is fun?' Asquith demanded.

'It's a hoot, this job!' Green announced.

'Honestly!' Blaine agreed. 'It's super!'

'Where's the rest of the Cabinet?' Asquith asked, glancing around. 'Why haven't they been airlifted in?'

'I cancelled it,' Green answered. 'They'd only get in the way.' Suddenly, he farted. 'Oh. There I go.'

Charles suddenly farted, causing all three to start laughing. It occurred to Asquith that these people must have cracked under the pressure. Blaine suddenly farted.

'And me!' She laughed. 'I'm shaking my booty!'

She let out a very long fart. Asquith made a decision. They were unfit for duty, so the responsibility fell to him.

'Sir!' he snapped. 'Under section 42 of emergency protocols, it is my duty to relieve you of command. And, believe me, I'll put this country under Marshall Law if I have to.'

'Oh!' Green mocked. 'I'm scared! I mean, that's "hair-raising". Literally! Look!'

He grabbed a zipper that Asquith somehow had failed to notice and drew it across his forehead. The other two did the same. That was when it dawned on the general. _They were the aliens._

Dani and Rose stood at the TARDIS computer, monitoring the Doctor's progress and he soniced the inside of the console. Morge sat, leaning against the console, and watched the Doctor work. The Doctor would glance at him every now and again.

'So what's your story?' he finally asked.

'Huh?' Morge looked down.

'The way you relate to humans and aliens,' the Doctor explained. 'You treat aliens more like people and you treat humans more like pests. Why?'

'I hate humans,' Morge answered.

'You are a human,' the Doctor pointed out.

'I already told him that,' Dani called.

'And I'm aware,' Morge said. 'But you don't pick what race you are.'

'Better than it used to be, mind you,' Dani added. 'Time was, he couldn't go a week without killing somebody.'

'What started that?' the Doctor asked.

'I'm from Tokyo,' Morge answered. 'My father was a successful businessman. When I was a toddler, my parents decided to show me the world before I went and started school. When I was four we were travelling through this country. We ran out of fuel a few miles outside of London. My father's mobile was dead and it was too far to walk so we were just sitting there. Then this nut comes along and kills my parents. He was about to go for me too, when he's shot by this stun-gun of some kind.'

'It was a Trefilon,' Dani explained. 'The way he's described her to me: blue skin, green hair, yellow eyes.'

'She checked my parents first and then, when she saw they were dead, she opened the car door to check on me,' Morge went on. 'Of course, that's when the army rolled up and gunned her down. I was just taken to an orphanage.'

'But the event stayed with you.' The Doctor's voice was like solid ice. 'When you got old enough to understand the difference between humans and aliens, you started hating your own race.'

'Pretty much,' Morge said. 'Dani's been working on me. She's been trying to show me that aliens and humans are pretty much the same in nature.'

'They usually attack what they don't understand.' The Doctor nodded. 'Often without thinking. That's true.'

'I think I've been getting through, too,' Dani announced.

The Doctor grinned. Then he looked at Morge again.

'Morge Singe,' he mused. 'That's not a Japanese name. I assume you adopted it.'

'My family name practically translates to "singe" and "Morge" just sounded appropriate to me,' Morge explained.

'So what's your real name then?' the Doctor asked.

'Kogasu Ichirou.'

'Fun fact,' Dani told Rose. 'In Japan, they say the family name first and the given name second. Back in Tokyo, he'd be called _Ichirou-san_.'

The Doctor would have said something else but he got it working. 'Ah-ha!' He jumped out from under the console. All four gathered around the computer. The Doctor hit the screen to get it working and then watched the figure.

'See?' The Doctor pointed. 'It did a loop. It came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived. They've been here for a while.'

'So what have they been doing?' Morge asked.

'Well, I can sense some aliens in Downing Street,' Dani said.

'Downing Street?' the Doctor asked. 'So how we going to get in? Can hardly march right in the front door, can we?'

'Actually, we can,' Rose corrected him. 'They're gathering experts in alien knowledge.'

The Doctor, Dani and Morge looked at her. Morge nodded to himself. The Doctor grinned from ear to ear. Dani beamed and clapped in delight.

'I knew I liked you,' she announced.

'We've got to do something about the gas exchange,' "Margaret" announced. 'It's getting ridiculous.'

'I don't know,' "Green" said. 'Seems very human to me. Ah…better get rid of his skin.' He handed Oliver's skin to "Asquith".

He took the skin and walked over to the cupboard. 'Shame. I quite enjoyed being Oliver. He had a wife, a mistress and a young farmer. God! I was busy.'

The three of them laughed as they walked out. The Liaison came running in.

'We've had Codes 9 and 9.1!' he announced. 'They're being transported here ASAP.'

'And they would be?' "Asquith" asked.

'Alien experts,' the Liaison answered. 'The ultimate alien experts.'

Pete, Mickey and Jake would be waiting for the Doctor's signal. When Rose had come to tell them the plan, she had told them that the Doctor would be reluctant but he would do it when she told him to. Mickey got it. It was unlikely that Harriet Jones would be there to tell him to do it because she had already been the Prime Minister. She'd been taken out of office after three successive terms by Dani, who had announced that she was "ill". Dani had done that because Rose had told her what Harriet Jones had done in her original dimension. Dani hadn't wanted to risk that at all. _'It could bring a war down on our shoulders,' _she'd said. Pete had agreed.

He also agreed to this. Be prepared to fire a missile at Downing Street, but don't do it until the Doctor ordered it. Then, and only then, was it acceptable.

Dani grabbed the car keys. They'd called Downing Street and let them know. Codes 9 and 9.1 (a.k.a. The Doctor and Dani) were coming in. Dani would be driving them in, seeing as she was the one with the car and the only one who had a driver's license.

'Are you sure about this?' Pete asked.

'Positively,' Dani said. 'I trust Rose almost as much as I trust the Doctor. Mickey, this happened in your original dimension too?'

'Yeah.' Mickey nodded. 'There's only one reason he hesitates. He doesn't want to lose Rose. He even said it out loud. When she tells him to do it anyway, he does.'

Pete nodded. 'And they'll be fine?'

'Rose said they took cover in a cupboard,' Mickey agreed. 'Besides, Dani and Morge will be there. And you know how Dani's like. She could take them on and beat them with next to no problem at all.'

'The room is for alien experts only,' the guy told them, handing the Doctor and Dani ID tags.

'That's okay,' Dani said. 'Logically speaking, if they were able to make the Prime Minister vanish, they must've been watching the place. Rose and Morge can look around for alien technology, can't you?'

'Sure,' Morge agreed.

'Didn't think of that,' the guy muttered.

'Well, in your job, you don't really expect to deal with aliens, do you?' Dani pointed out, ignoring the Doctor's grin. 'By the way, what is your job?'

'Liaison to the Prime Minister,' the guy answered.

The Doctor nodded. Then he looked at Rose and Morge.

'Why are you two still standing here?' he asked. 'Take a look around and start in the Cabinet room.'

The two humans looked at each other and then ducked up the stairs.

Morge was the one who found the human skin of Oliver Charles.

'A skin suit,' he muttered. Then he looked at Rose. 'You lived this before, haven't you?'

Usually he got impatient around other humans. Rose, however, could easily be mistaken for an alien to him. She was every bit as caring and compassionate as the alien that saved his life over twenty years ago. And she was also very clearly in love with the Doctor. But Dani had said the Doctor didn't see it. Maybe, for now, that was a good thing. That man was still in need of healing.

'Yeah,' Rose said.

'So where's the Prime Minister?'

Rose went over and yanked a cupboard door open. The Prime Minister fell out. Morge came over and crouched down next to him. He felt where his pulse should be—emphasis on the "should"—and his skin was cold. He was dead as a doornail. Morge tried to flex is arm. _Rigor mortis. _They both looked up as they heard the door open and the Liaison came in. He stared at the body at their feet in disbelief.

'The Prime Minister…' he murmured.

'He's been dead for at least a day,' Morge told him.

'But…' He shook his head in disbelief.

'You don't believe me?' Morge snapped. 'Come and see for yourself.'

'Well, well, well.'

They all twisted around. An overweight woman who looked like a member of government was coming in. Morge didn't like the look on her face for one moment, grinning all the time.

'Someone's been naughty,' she remarked.

'But, the Prime Minster left,' the Liaison insisted. 'He got in a car.'

'And who told you that?' she asked. 'Me!'

She reached for a zipper on her forehead. Morge and Rose both took a step back, both familiar with this attitude. It may not have totally sunk into Morge's brain yet, that humans and aliens were the same, but he was getting the picture.

The Doctor and Dani watched in mutual astonishment and disbelief as the General peeled his skin off, revealing himself as an alien. "Green" was laughing manically the whole time. The Doctor and Dani looked at each other.

'We are the Slitheen!' the exposed alien announced.

"Green" pulled a remote out of his pocket. 'Thank you all for wearing your ID tags.' He stood up. 'They'll help to identify the bodies.'

He hit the button and hundreds of volts of electricity shot through their bodies. Only the Doctor and Dani could survive that much electricity.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: World War III**

The Doctor and Dani yanked their ID tags off at the same time. Dani dropped hers while the Doctor took his forward. He was still in pain, but he still said,

'Deadly to humans, maybe!'

Then he clamped it onto one of the Slitheen and the two humanoid aliens ran out of the room. They had to get out of here. Then they had to find their humans and work out what to do about these aliens.

Dani kept a little behind the Doctor as they were cornered. She whacked the open button for the lift. The two disguised aliens came at them with the military humans and all those fancy guns.

'Under section three of the emergency protocols,' the "General" barked, 'I order you to _execute these two_!'

'Well,' the Doctor stated, stuttering slightly and looking around at the humans but always drawing his gaze back to the extraterrestrial impostor, 'you see, if I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against a wall, between you and me, little word of advice.' The lift dinged open. 'Don't stand them against the lift.'

The two of them ducked into the life and the Doctor soniced it closed. Both of them grinned as the doors shut. Then they looked at each other and started laughing at the whole thing.

'They're as bright as they look!' Dani remarked.

Coincidentally, or not so much, Rose and Morge ran into the Doctor and Dani not too long after they ran out of the living room. They all ran for the Cabinet room. The Slitheen followed them and the Doctor ran to the door, grabbed the sherry and held his sonic screwdriver to the glass threateningly.

'One more step and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol,' the Doctor stated. 'We all go up—fwoomp—so back off!'

The Slitheen backed off. Dani and the Doctor were in front of Rose and Morge. Dani poised for hand-to-hand combat. She didn't know if she was strong enough to take them but she would try. She could also smell that the female was venomous.

'Okay.' The Doctor grinned, lowering the sherry slightly. 'Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?'

'Who are you, if not human?' one of the Slitheen asked.

'I'm the Doctor,' he answered. 'I've been protecting this planet for years and I happen to like the inhabitants, stupid as they can be. I've even taught some how to defend themselves against aliens like you. So, come on. You've got a spaceship in the North Sea transmitting a signal. What for? Invasion?'

'Why would we invade this godforsaken rock?' one of them asked, clearly believing that to be the stupidest idea he'd ever encountered.

'Then something's brought the Slitheen race here.' The Doctor spoke with absolute certainty. 'What is it?'

'The Slitheen race?' the apparent leader repeated incredulously. '"Slitheen" is not our species. "Slitheen" is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen, at your service.'

The four humanoids were staring at them incredulously at this point. Dani had even slightly dropped her fighting pose. She quickly gathered her bearings and put it back up again.

'So, you're family?' asked the Doctor, squinting at them.

'A family business,' Jocrassa proclaimed.

Anyone could see him work it out by the look on his face. 'Then you're out to make a profit,' the Doctor concluded. 'How can you do that on a "godforsaken rock"?'

The Slitheen clearly did not want to answer that one. Especially to a being that wasn't human and therefore, to their judgement, not a primitive idiot. They probably thought, even with him dead, as they thought he'd soon be, they could still be stopped because he probably had mikes that were transmitting back to a base. Or something.

'Uh…' Jocrassa stumbled, looking for a way not to answer that—and finding it very quickly. 'Excuse me, your sonic device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?'

'That's what I said.' The Doctor raised the glass up again.

'You're making it up,' Jocrassa announced with conviction.

'Oh, well,' the Doctor remarked. 'Nice try. Morge, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it.'

Morge took the glass that the Doctor handed him. He yanked the top off and took a mouthful. He was clearly getting nervous. He probably wasn't in this situation very often.

'Now, we can end this hunt…' Jocrassa stated maliciously as all three of the Slitheen stepped forward and clicked their talon-like claws together in anticipation, '…with a slaughter.'

Dani straightened up and the Doctor folded his arms, neither of them backing away. Rose looked at the Doctor. She knew what he was about to do. She remembered, last time, Dani and Morge had both been absent.

'Fascinating history, Downing Street,' Dani remarked, off-handedly. 'Wouldn't you say, Doctor?'

Rose knew what they were leading up to. The history of Downing Street first. The defences of the Cabinet Room second. The Slitheen were clearly not the kind to consider that somebody had the capabilities to stop them. They probably didn't even believe in the Time Lords.

'Oh, yes,' the Doctor said. '2000 years ago, this was marshland. 1730, it was occupied by a Mr. Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796 this was the Cabinet room. If the Cabinet are in session and in danger these are about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson.'

He hit a button and steel walls covered every possible opening, escape and entry. The Doctor and Dani turned to the humans. They both looked exceedingly happy with themselves.

'They were installed in 1991,' Dani explained.

'Three inches of steel lining every wall,' the Doctor finished. 'They'll never get in.'

'And we don't get out, right?' Rose asked.

The Doctor looked around. He seemed to realise that as soon as she said it. Then he nodded to himself. 'Ah.'

'Well, it wouldn't be the Doctor's plan without a flaw somewhere,' Dani pointed out happily.

He gave her a dirty look. She just grinned at him.

'We got anything?' the Doctor asked as he soniced the steel. 'Any terminals? Intercoms?'

'No,' Rose, who was looking for technology answered. 'This place is antique.'

'So why didn't they dress up as the Prime Minister?' Morge asked.

'He's too thin,' Rose answered.

'The Slitheen need to fit inside big people.' The Doctor sent a grin at his companion. 'That thing around their necks is the compression field. Makes them small enough to fit inside them.'

'Wish I had a compression field to make me fit a size smaller,' Rose remarked.

Dani snorted in laughter. She'd brought a laptop with her. She was monitoring the Slitheen's movements. The cut off of communications was overridden with a small device the Doctor had given her before he went off to the Time War.

'Nah,' she told Rose. 'You're a healthy weight. Mind you, the old matron could stand to lose a few pounds.'

'Who's the old matron?' the Doctor asked

'This woman who keeps trying to get me into therapy,' Morge answered. 'Fat old cow. Needs to learn to mind her own business.'

'Yeah.' Dani laughed. Then she looked up. 'Oh, looks like Torchwood just killed a Slitheen. I was right, then. I thought they were from Raxacoricofallapatorius and they are. Told Pete to drop vinegar on them.'

'What made you think of Raxacoricofallapatorius?' the Doctor asked, impressed.

'The technology in the pig's brain,' Dani answered. 'Remember when we went to the Isop Galaxy? The technology wasn't actually dissimilar to that. I figured whoever this is came from somewhere around there.'

'Good,' the Doctor said. 'So they dropped vinegar on him?'

'And now he's dead,' Dani agreed. 'Which should mean…'

She started hitting a series of keys on her laptop. The Doctor, Rose and Morge gathered around her and they watched. Morge thought it was safe to assume Jocrassa was the leader and, therefore, in Green's skin. He came out to the reporters.

'_Ladies and gentlemen,' _he said. _'People of Earth, I bring you bad news. Our satellites have picked up massive weapons of destruction above the planet.'_

'What?' the Doctor muttered.

'_Our scientists can baffle the alien probes,' _Jocrassa went on. _'But not for long. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mothership. We face extinction. Unless we strike first. I beg of the United Nations, give us the access codes because, I regret to say, as of now…Planet Earth is at war.'_

The two humans and two aliens stood up. All four had disbelieving looks on their faces. The Doctor stared at the screen, enraged, until Dani slapped the laptop shut.

'There's no ship,' the Doctor said. 'There's no threat. He's making it up.'

'Why would they want the access codes, though?' Dani asked as she and the two humans followed the Doctor to the door.

The Doctor hit the switched and opened the door. He glared at the Slitheen out there as "Margaret" came to the front. Only then did he explain. 'You get the defence codes. But you don't shoot up. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back.'

'World War III,' Dani concluded neutrally. 'Whole planet gets nuked.'

'And we can sit in our spaceship safe in the Thames,' "Margaret" stated. 'Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away.'

'You really think you can get away with that?' Dani demanded. 'Petty criminals like you? And all for profit?'

'That's what the advert beaming into space is,' the Doctor explained. 'That's the plan.'

'Reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it,' "Margaret" said. 'There's a concession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel.'

'At the cost of five billion lives,' the Doctor snapped.

'Bargain.' She sneered.

Dani let loose a snarl so feral that the Slitheen all jumped back from. The Doctor, Rose and Morge were all used to the animalistic sounds she made, that were part of her mentality. They didn't even flinch. But Morge smirked.

'And you thought you were dangerous.' He sneered right back.

'I could always set her on you,' the Doctor mused. 'Dani's from a race so dangerous that the Time Lords wanted her dead. But, I give you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you.'

The Slitheen all cracked up laughing. They clearly now thought it was a cleverly-planned trick to scare them off. Dani snarled again, quieter this time. It was clear they weren't going to let themselves be threatened.

'What?' "Margaret" scoffed, stepping forward as she mocked them. 'You? Trapped in your box?'

'Yes,' the Doctor answered. 'Me.'

They just kept laughing. The Doctor closed the door again. "Margaret" stopped grinning at the last moment, as if she suddenly registered that they weren't bluffing.

'I hope they have good hearing,' Dani announced, calming herself down. 'Because I seem to recall us stopping bigger threats from smaller boxes.'

The Torchwood staff waited. They knew the call would come but they didn't know when. No one doubted what Mickey and Rose claimed of the Doctor. They all knew, if not for him, they never would have been born in the first place. They wouldn't still be alive.

So they waited.

Rose could see it was weighing on the Doctor's mind. He didn't want to do it. He didn't even want to be thinking it. She knew she'd have to prompt him. Maybe the same way she did before.

'If we could just get out of here.'

'There's a way,' the Doctor told her.

'What?' she asked, turning around.

'There's always been a way.'

'Then why don't we use it?'

'That dangerous, huh?' Dani asked. 'Still…I've never known you to hesitate. What's the hold-up?'

The Doctor didn't answer. He just looked at Rose. She saw, out of the corner of her eyes, Dani and Morge looked at each other. It was as obvious to them as if he'd said it straight-out. The Doctor averted his eyes.

'Do it,' Rose told him.

He looked up at her again. Rose saw both awe and expectation in his eyes. He knew the answer to what he was about to ask and he was amazed at her. She knew that as well as she knew her own name.

'You don't even know what it is, you'd just let me?' he asked gently.

'Yeah,' she answered.

'But we have to do it, don't we?' Morge point out.

'Yeah,' the Doctor breathed.

'Then what are you waiting for?' Rose asked.

He looked up at her and an expression, that made Rose want to pull him close, came onto his face. She knew what that meant.

'I could save the world but loose you.' He was barely able to keep his voice from breaking.

Rose lost track of how long she stared at the Doctor before Dani interrupted. She jumped on the table and cleared her throat. They both looked at her. She took a moment before speaking.

'Not that I like interrupting this,' she said. 'But don't we have a planet to save?'

When the call came, Pete Tyler picked it up. All eyes turned to him. He pretended not to notice. 'Rose?'

'_Fire the missile, dad,' _she said.

'Take cover,' he told her. Then he hung up and gave the order.

'How solid is the steel?' Morge asked.

'Not solid enough,' the Doctor answered. 'Built for short-range attack. Nothing this big.'

'Okay.' Rose looked around. 'Now I'm the one making a decision. I'm not going to die here. It's like they say about earthquakes. You can survive them if you stand under a doorway. Now, this cupboard is small, so it's strong. Come on!'

'She's got a point!' Dani agreed as they all ran in.

The Doctor, Rose and Morge all took cover under a shelf, but Dani braced herself against it and over them instead. Morge glanced up at her, slightly worried. Rose looked at the Doctor. He had a slight smile on his face that made her feel confident in what Dani was doing.

'The steel isn't built for this,' he explained. 'Dani is.'

The only thing left of Downing Street was a small metal container, about the size of a room. The door was opened and Morge jumped out. The Doctor, Rose and Dani followed him. One of the soldiers suddenly ran over to them, clearly stunned that they had been inside and they were still alive.

'Are you all right?' he asked, running over the rubble.

'Yup,' the Doctor said.

'You can call the UN,' Dani told him. 'I want you to tell the Ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on!'

He ran off, obediently. Dani turned to the Doctor. He was grinning from ear to ear and watching Rose who was calmly surveying the damage.

'You be heading off again soon?' Dani asked.

'Probably, yeah.' The Doctor turned his attention to her..

The four of them walked out. Morge grinned. 'Well, who's up for some food first?' he asked, 'Dani, what was that place you found? You said they had all right food in there?'

'The Bad Wolf café.' Dani groaned. 'And that is a really weird name for a café.' She looked back at them. 'You up for some chow?'

'Oh!' The Doctor laughed. 'Does Dani want her din-dins?'

'Yes, she does,' Dani retorted. 'Dani gets hungry when she has to save the world.'

Rose was thoughtful as she ate. It occurred to her that Bad Wolf was following her around again. That meant it would happen again. The thought terrified her. She didn't want the Doctor to die again. She thought about it. She had to do something so she could expel the energy without harming him.

'Rose?' the Doctor asked.

'Hm?' She looked at him.

'What are you thinking about?'

'Oh.' She smiled. 'Nothing really important.'

The Doctor had forgotten how cute human children could be. Rose's little brother, Tony, seemed absolutely fascinated with the TARDIS. The Doctor actually had to carry him out of the ship. He gave him to Jackie immediately. Pete was having a hard time stopping himself from laughing. Rose laughed herself as she came down with a large bag.

'Got enough stuff?' the Doctor asked.

'Last time I stepped in that box, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.' Rose dumped the bag in his arms. 'This time, I'm signing up. You're stuck with me. Ha-ha!'

'You come back?' Tony demanded eagerly.

'Loves the TARDIS?' Rose asked.

'Really loves the TARDIS,' Jackie said.

Rose ruffled her little brother's hair. 'We'll be back, Tony.'

Tony pouted. 'How come Rose get to travel in big box?'

'Because Rose is all grown up and she's allowed to,' Jackie answered.

'I wanna be all grown up!' Tony insisted.

The Doctor laughed and went into the TARDIS. Rose said her last goodbyes and then followed him. Jackie, Tony, Pete, Mickey, Jake, Dani and Morge watched as the TARDIS dematerialised.

'Where'd it go?' Tony asked, looking around.

Dani smiled. 'Into the Time Vortex.'


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Dalek**

'So, where are we?' Rose asked, as she cautiously stepped out of the TARDIS after the Doctor.

'Under the Salt Plains of Utah,' the Doctor answered. '2012. Picked up a distress signal.'

'That could have come from anything,' Rose murmured. She already knew what was down here. And she knew the Doctor thought it was impossible. She tried not to think about it and turned her mind away from it. She looked around. 'Someone's got a collection. What do you think they'd do if they got a live one?'

'Something nasty,' the Doctor answered swiftly. 'That's probably exactly what's happened. Oh, look at you.'

'A Cyberman,' Rose murmured. 'How did he get that?'

'That's the old design of Cyberman head,' the Doctor answered. 'The only thing they update is their armour. From the looks of this, I'd say they probably found it in a London sewer in 1985.'

'What were the Cybermen doing in the London sewers?' Rose asked.

'Trying to rewrite history,' The Doctor answered. 'In 1986, they came to Earth. They used their home planet, Mondas, as a ship. Moving the planet about like that was supposed to be a tribute to Cybermen engineering. I stopped them but, in the meantime, I kind of blew up their planet. That time, it really was an accident.' He paused. '1985…that was Dani's first encounter with the Cybermen.'

He touched the glass and an alarm went off.

The Doctor and Rose were taken into the office of a clearly pompous human. He even had an oil painting of himself behind his desk. However, the Doctor put on a cheerful disposition. He had a life form to save, after all. The guy, who turned out to be Henry Van Statten, was very relaxed. That beat his guards, who seemed to make up for it in being uptight.

Rose considered it as Adam tried to impress her. She knew she'd have to teach the Doctor a lesson, just as she did last time. He was full of bitter hate and rage. That meant touching the Dalek again. She just couldn't care about it after everything she'd seen of the Daleks. That meant she had to do something about the Doctor's anger. She had to make sure he didn't kill it in a blind rage.

She looked up at Adam. It occurred to her that she could use him. It might be cruel on Adam and on the Dalek but this was for the Doctor. He needed help more than either of them. Adam was now bragging about the live specimen that Van Statten had. He couldn't have given her a more perfect opportunity.

'Can I see it?'

Adam wasn't sure about this. But Rose wanted to see the Metaltron. And she was very pretty. It seemed to be the way to go. She looked at it and circled it, almost like she was studying it. Then she reached out to touch it. Adam lurched forward and caught her hand.

'The last guy that did that was incinerated,' he told her.

'Oh, I know,' she responded, gently pulling her arm out of his grip. 'But there's a difference between him and me. I haven't been torturing it.'

She reached out again and this time she actually touched it. No sooner had she done so, than she yanked her hand back as if she was burned. A glowing handprint was left on the shell and Rose bolted. A moment later, Adam saw why. The chains fell away and it woke up. It seemed to rejuvenate.

'Exterminate!' it yelled.

A laser beam shot out and killed Simmons. Adam bolted too. He was not staying around to get killed by a giant pepper pot.

The Doctor screamed as the radiation ran over his body. It wasn't fatal, but it was incredibly painful. It suddenly stopped. The Doctor raised his head and almost laughed. Rose was at the controls and she seemed to know what she was doing. The shackles opened and the Doctor stumbled, catching himself and leaning on his knees.

'What do you think you're…' Van Staten demanded but Rose cut him off.

'You got more important things to worry about!' She came to the Doctor and grabbed one of his arms, wrapping it around her shoulders, while wrapping her other arm around his waist so he could lean on her. 'Doctor?'

'I'll be fine,' he assured her. 'Gallifreyan skin's just sensitive to that sort of radiation.'

As he caught his breath, he became aware that the palm on his waist was a fair bit hotter than the one holding his wrist. He reached down and took the hand on his waist, lifting it and turning it over. Her palm was red, as if she'd touched something hot. He looked at her.

'What happened?' he asked.

'Touched an alien,' she answered.

The Doctor suddenly forgot about his own pain. She'd touched the Dalek. _'You got more important things to worry about!' _He turned her to face him and looked her right in the eye.

'Rose,' he said slowly, 'do you know what the alien was?'

'Yes,' she answered. 'It was a Dalek.'

'Do you know about the background radiation?' he queried.

'Yes, I did,' she answered.

'Did you know what would happen when you touched it?' he asked.

She nodded.

'Then why the hell did you touch it, you stupid ape?' he demanded, twisting around and grabbing her shoulders tightly, about to try to shake some sense into her.

She knew what it was. She knew she was doused in background radiation. She knew what her touching it would do and she'd still done it. He'd really thought she was smarter than that…

'Because you're going to have to face it someday,' she snapped back. 'And it's no use getting angry! It'll only make you as much of a monster as it is! It's better that you face it on even grounds.'

…and she was. The Doctor would have loved to snap back at her, but she was right. Now that he thought about it, he'd tortured it and he'd enjoyed it. What did that make him? It made him a monster. Just like the Daleks. That wasn't something he wanted to be. He looked directly at Rose and realised she knew and she was really only trying to help him with his own personal issues. She didn't have to, but she was. He cupped her cheek and looked at her in awe.

'Why do you have to be so…human?' he asked softly.

'Because I am,' Rose answered.

Diana Goddard watched as the Doctor bandaged up Rose Tyler's hand. He'd pulled on his jumper and jacket and he'd checked all the pockets too. Rose had released the Dalek simply so the Doctor could face his own personal demons.

It was clear that Rose didn't care what species the Doctor was, she loved him. She would've done it anyway. The reason why men were dying was because of Van Statten's collection.

If no one else would admit it, Goddard would: they had treated both aliens inhumanly and unethically. The scientists should be struck off for what they'd done. That was why people were dying. If the Doctor was the only one who could get rid of the Dalek, then he ought to do it.

But Rose was right. He couldn't do it while he was raving mad. It wouldn't help anyone, least of all him. And it'd probably just get more people killed. He had to be level-headed for this and Rose was certainly helping with that.

Rose followed the Doctor down. She knew he was still angry, but she had calmed him down enough that he wasn't absolutely blinded with rage. She was a bit nervous about that gun Adam had provided them with, but she also knew what they would find down there. Over two hundred men were already dead. They rounded the corner and came to the Dalek.

'You are the Doctor,' the Dalek stated. 'Your companion is the one that freed me with a touch of background radiation.'

'I know,' he said. 'She did it for me.'

The Dalek's eyepiece shifted, like it was thinking. Rose put her hand on the Doctor's arm. Her DNA had apparently affected the Dalek in this dimension too. That meant it was trying to figure out how that worked.

'Daleks don't usually do that, do they?' she asked, in case he hadn't noticed the odd gesture from the Dalek.

He froze. She realised he actually hadn't noticed. Now that she'd pointed it out, though, he did see it. He didn't lower the gun, but he squinted as his enemy. She could see he didn't understand the Dalek's actions.

'What's the matter with you, then?' the Doctor demanded, staring at the Dalek in confusion.

'I…do not understand this.' The Dalek answered.

'It's emotion,' the Doctor told it, shaking his head. 'Since when did Daleks try to understand emotion?'

'Untainted Daleks do not,' the Dalek answered. 'I am no longer untainted.'

Rose waited patiently. The Doctor seemed to consider it. She knew he'd realised it because he lowered the gun and looked back at her, understanding clear in his stormy blue eyes. Then he looked at the Dalek.

'Rose's touch affected you,' he exclaimed. 'You're a Dalek with human DNA!'

The Dalek looked up at him and asked him, 'Do you pride yourself on such confusion, Doctor? Emotions. I do not like the confusion they bring. How do you stand it and still defeat us?'

'Oh, a Dalek would have trouble understanding,' the Doctor murmured.

Rose could see that his anger was gone. A Dalek was one thing, but a Dalek with human DNA was something that he couldn't make heads or tails of. It was very hard to be angry when you were confused.

Dalek raised its eyepiece and the roof suddenly opened. Sunlight streamed in and touched the Dalek. Rose realised what it'd been after ever since she touched it now. Just like last time. They watched as it returned its attention to them and then the orbs that lined the Dalekanium shell detached and floated around it. Then the Dalek destroyed itself.

'It just wanted to feel sunlight,' Rose murmured.

The Doctor looked at her. 'Daleks are made as emotionless creatures. Emotion means facing up to who you've murdered without remorse. It would always be too much for a Dalek.'

He dropped the gun in his hand. Rose turned to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a comforting hug. He clung to her and pressed his face into her shoulder, almost desperately.

'Rose…' he breathed, agonised. '…I hate them. I hate them.'

'I know.' She soothing massaged his skull. 'But it's gone.'

She didn't mention how more of them would be back. She didn't mention how the Emperor and the Cult of Skaro had survived. She would tell him, but later. When he had calmed down. When he was ready to hear that at least one faction had survived the war.

Goddard came to Van Statten. He looked at her, waiting for her report. She nodded to the guards. They immediately grabbed him and started carting him off, despite his loud protests.

'Over two hundred men dead,' Goddard announced, 'and all because of you, sir.'

'You can't do this to me!' he claimed. 'I am Henry Van Statten.'

'And by this time tomorrow Henry Van Statten will be a homeless, brainless junkie,' Goddard announced. 'Take him away, wipe his memory and leave him in the road some place. San Diego. San Antoine. Sacramento.' She stopped and turned around. 'Some place beginning with "S".' She walked off, arms folded and feeling very self-satisfied.

The Doctor patted the side of the TARDIS. He guessed he should be grateful. This battle hadn't actually cost him anything.

'Little piece of home,' he murmured to Rose, who was standing beside him. 'Better than nothing. I win! How about that?'

'The Daleks survived.' Rose futilely tried to reassure him. 'Maybe some of your people did too.'

'I'd know,' he told her. 'In here.' He tapped his head. 'Feels like there's no one.'

'Well, it's a good thing I'm not going anywhere, then,' Rose told him.

He looked at her and she saw he didn't really believe that. 'Yeah.'

Adam jogged over to them. 'Goodard said the place is gonna be filled with cement. We better get out of here.'

'Off you go then,' the Doctor told him.

'Actually, Doctor,' Rose said. 'I thought he could come with us.'

'No.'

'Well, he did help us,' Rose pointed out.

'That cast aside,' the Doctor challenged, 'he's a bit pretty.'

'Really?' Rose drawled. 'I didn't notice.'

'On your own head.' The Doctor shrugged and stepped into the TARDIS.

Rose followed him in. A moment later, Adam did too. The Doctor threw a lever and they went hurtling into the Time Vortex.

Rose took Adam to a room. It was a fair bit smaller than her own room and it was sparsely decorated. It was also a lovely and far distance from her room. The only reason Rose really wanted Adam along was so she could get the Doctor jealous. It was working so far. But she knew where he'd be now, where he was last time. Sure enough, he was in the console room. He was sitting in the pilot's chair with his jacket hugged around him in a gesture of helplessness, his eyes jammed shut and his body tight as a coil. Rose came over and laid her hands on his shoulders. He jumped slightly and looked up at her.

'I thought you went to bed,' he murmured, his voice hoarse.

'No,' Rose said. 'I knew you'd be like this. Come on, let's go have a cup of tea.' She laughed as she gently pulled him out of the chair and dragged him to the kitchen. 'Mum's solution to everything.'

He smiled tiredly. She got him into the kitchen and onto one of the stools at the kitchen island. A few minutes later, she set a steaming cup of tea in front of him. He wrapped his hands around the mug and stared into the liquid.

'How much do you know about the Daleks?' he asked after a long moment of silence.

'Did dad tell you about the sphere that fell out of the void?' Rose asked.

'Yeah.'

'There were Daleks in there,' Rose told him. 'Four of them. The Cult of Skaro.'

'So it's true.' The Doctor dropped his head. 'The Daleks that dared to have imagination…even dared to dream.' He paused and then looked up at her. 'Wait. Cybermen _and _Daleks? At the same time? No wonder the void had to be ripped open!'

'You're telling me?' Rose chuckled. 'When they first saw each other, it was comedic in a scary sort of way. The Daleks were going "identify yourself" and the Cybermen were going "you identify first".'

The Doctor grinned to himself. 'So what broke the cycle?'

'Dalek…Thay, I think it was said…' she paused thinking, 'Oh, yeah! It said "Daleks do not take orders from inferior life forms".'

'You remember this pretty well,' the Doctor remarked. 'How long ago did this happen?'

'Four years,' Rose answered. 'But it was also the worst day of my life. That's why I remember it so well. The Daleks and the Cybermen started a war and the humans of that world started to get caught in the crossfire.'

The Doctor took a sip of the tea and then he reached up and cupped Rose's cheek. She felt her heart race. She wasn't sure if it showed on her face or not and she didn't know if she wanted it to. He lightly ran his thumb below her bottom lip as he looked into her eyes.

'You've got more than enough reason to hate the Daleks,' he murmured. 'Yet you stayed calm. You were calmer than me and I'm supposed to be the one who makes less mistakes. I'm older…wiser…all that rubbish.'

'You've got more reason to hate the Daleks,' she told him. 'If they didn't exist, the war wouldn't have started. If the war didn't start, you wouldn't have had to destroy your own people.'

'If I told you I had a chance to stop them every evolving?' the Doctor asked, averting his eyes.

'And why didn't you?' she asked.

'I thought I didn't have the right. I thought that, as evil as they were, they caused a lot of good in the universe, bringing people together to fight them and all that.' The Doctor dropped his hand and his frame shook. 'Was I wrong, Rose Did I actually have a right to kill them? Did I?'

'No,' she told him. 'No one has the right to stop anyone, no matter who they're gonna be, from every existing in the first place. You weren't wrong.'

The Doctor dropped his hand and watched her over the mug as he took another drink of tea. He then smiled at her.

'Rose Marion Tyler.' He pronounced her name. 'You are one of the most incredible humans I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.'

'Am I?' Rose asked, smiling.

'Mm-hm. Not many humans can make a Time Lord change his mind. I was going to run in there and just gun that Dalek down. You were right. If I had done that, it would've made me no better than it was. Tell me, Rose…what else have you seen without me knowing about it?'

She stood up and walked around the island, thinking. What had she seen in her dimension that she would not see here. She watched the Doctor finish his cup of tea as she stood behind him. She rubbed his shoulders.

'I've seen Reapers,' she told him. 'A man lived longer than he should have. We holed up in a church. The old walls…well, you'd understand, wouldn't you? The man who should've died…he figured it out and he ran in front of a car. He died within minutes and everything was returned to normal.'

The Doctor didn't say anything for a long moment. He laid his head down on the kitchen island. Rose continued rubbing his back. His muscles were so tense. Rose had a feeling it'd been a very long while since the moron had rested. When the Doctor spoke again, his voice was soft, 'What else have you seen?'

'The devil.'

He lifted his head and looked at her. 'The devil?' He laughed, 'Oh, come on! Really, Rose!'

She'd known he would believe her. And he didn't. He thought she was pulling his leg on that one. She grinned at him. She could tell that the whole "joke" had really made him a lot happier, but she had to ask him anyway.

'Knew I could get a grin,' she remarked. 'Do you feel better, Doctor?'

'Yes.' He beamed at her. 'I do, actually.'


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Long Game**

A blue box appeared out of thin air with a wheezing, groaning sound and a few seconds later the Doctor and Rose stepped out. The Doctor looked around before turning back to Rose. He was grinning as if there was some trick being played that he was enjoying more than he should.

'Right,' the Doctor stated. 'So, it's 200, 000 and it's a spaceship…no, hold on. A space station. And…go look through those gates.'

'All right,' Rose responded, before checking. '200, 000?'

'Yeah.' The Doctor nodded as he leaned against the side of the box.

Rose knocked on the door and called, 'Adam? Adam?'

The door opened and a young boy came out, looking absolutely awestruck. 'Oh, my God!' he murmured.

'It's all right,' Rose told him.

'Where are we?' Adam asked.

'Good question,' Rose responded in a business manner. 'Let's see…judging by the basic architecture I'd say we're about…the year 200, 000 and if you listen…' She paused for emphasis. 'Engines. Could be a space station. Yup. Definitely a space station.'

Through the whole thing, the Doctor was watching her with a bit of a proud and gloating expression on his face.

'It's a bit warm, they could turn the heating down,' Rose remarked. 'Tell you what, let's try that gate.'

They all walked onto the viewing platform on the other side of the gate and Rose spoke again. 'And this is…well, I'll let the Doctor describe it.'

The Doctor stepped beside Rose and spoke clearly, as if addressing a room full of people, as opposed to the two with him. 'The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Planet Earth at it's height. 1000 planets, 1000 species, with the human race right in the middle.'

Adam fainted.

'He's your boyfriend,' the Doctor told Rose.

'Not anymore,' Rose responded.

Rose knew the society was the wrong shape and she knew why. Of course the Doctor knew from the moment he saw all the technology. Rose had one more thing to do. If she allowed Adam more than one trip, he could do any amount of damage to history. She couldn't allow that.

'You all right?' she asked the idiot.

'Yeah,' he said. 'You gonna sit here and be a citizen of the year 200,000. Wish I could call home.'

'Here.' She handed him her phone. 'Call them.'

'We're 200,000 years into the future,' he pointed out.

'Call them,' Rose told him again.

Adam dialled and found that she was right. The phone…nothing more. No TARDIS key this time. Adam had served his purpose, crude as it sounded. The Doctor was jealous. And not giving Adam her key would show the Doctor that she didn't _totally _trust him. And she wasn't about to tell the Doctor that she had known what Adam would do with the phone, because she knew Adam wouldn't get away with it.

'Doctor, if there was any sort of conspiracy, Satellite 5 would have seen it,' Cathica announced. 'We see everything.'

'I see better,' the Doctor stated. 'This society's the wrong shape. Even the technology.'

'It's cutting edge!' Cathica insisted.

'It's backwards,' the Doctor responded. 'You've got a great big door in your head! You should've chuckled this out years ago.'

'How many years ago?' Rose asked.

'The human race has been set back about ninety years,' the Doctor answered. Then he looked back at Cathica. 'When did Satellite 5 start broadcasting?'

'…91 years ago.'

The Doctor was sonicing the wall, where it met up with the computer. He had to get in and find out what was going on here.

'We're so gonna get in trouble.' Cathica went over to the Doctor and Rose. 'What are you doing.'

'Rose.' The Doctor ignored her, but not completely. 'Tell her to button it.'

But instead, Rose said, 'Look, if you want to help, tell them to turn the heating down.' She faced her. 'It's boiling! Why's it so hot anyway?'

'I don't know,' Cathica responded. 'We've asked. It's something to do with the turbines.'

'"Something to do with the turbines"!' the Doctor scoffed.

'Well, I don't know, do I?' Cathica responded.

The Doctor pulled the door open as he finished sonicing the seal. 'Exactly! I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of questions.'

'I thank you,' Rose stated.

'Why is it so hot?' the Doctor went on.

'Well, one minute you're worried about the Empire, the next it's the central heating!' Cathica retorted.

'Oh, never underestimate plumbing!' the Doctor stated. 'Plumbing's very important.'

The Doctor pulled a cable out. _Whoops._

The Editor watched as the man looked at the computers. One of the brainless humans was there, looking very nervous. She looked at the computer screen.

'_I can't believe this!' _she exclaimed. _'You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the stock exchange…and you're looking at pipes?'_

'_But there's something wrong,' _the man stated.

'_Yes,' _the brainless human murmured. _'Yes, I suppose.'_

'_Why?' _the girl asked. _'What is it?'_

'_Cooling systems…aqua ducts. All working flat out.'_

'_Floor 500,' _the girl announced.

'_Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat and it's being funnelled down. All the way from the top.'_

'_Well,' _the girl smiled, _'I don't know about you but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. Fancy a trip up?'_

'_But you need the key,' _the brainless pointed out.

'_Keys are just codes and I've got the code right here.' _the man responded.

The Editor quickly had him sent the code. The brainless human looked surprised.

'_How come it's giving you the code?' _she asked.

The man looked up at the camera. _'Someone up there likes me.'_

The Editor chuckled.

The Doctor and Rose stepped into the lift.

'Come on, then,' Rose told her.

'Uh-uh.' Cathica shook her head. 'It has nothing to do with me. When you get in trouble, don't mention my name.'

She stalked off. The Doctor and Rose watched her go. Rose knew she'd be back. Her conscience was too strong for that. The Doctor looked at her and she met his eyes with a happy smile.

'That's her gone,' he announced. 'Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you and me.'

'Good,' Rose said.

The Doctor grinned and entered the code. He took Rose's hand as the lift door closed. She was quite happy where she was but she still had to help her Doctor. Even if he didn't realise he was hers, he was. And she'd be with him forever.

'The walls aren't gold,' the Doctor told Rose as they stepped out of the lift. 'You better go back.'

'Tough,' Rose told him, going on ahead.

_Stupid little ape._ The Doctor thought affectionately. It was nothing at all for him to catch up with her.

'I started without you.' The white-haired man said as the Doctor and Rose walked in.

Then he laughed.

'This is fascinating!' he told them. 'Satellite 5 contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you two. You don't exist.' He laughed again. 'There's not a trace. No birth, no job. Not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?'

Rose walked around to Suki. She felt the girl's pulse—or lack of one. Then she looked at the Doctor. 'She's dead. How is she still working?'

'They've all got chips in their heads and the chips keep them going like puppets,' the Doctor explained.

'Oh, you're full of information.' The Editor chuckled. 'But it's only fair we get some information back, because, apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?'

'It doesn't matter, cause we're off,' he stated. 'Nice to meet you.' Then he turned to Rose. 'Come on!'

But the dead were also puppeteered to be stronger than normal people and they weren't going anywhere.

'Tell me who you are,' the Editor ordered.

'Since that information is keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?' the Doctor responded.

'Well, perhaps my Editor-in-chief can convince you otherwise,' the Editor suggested.

'And who's that?' the Doctor asked.

'It may interest you to know this isn't actually the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire,' the Editor stated. 'In fact, it's not actually "human" at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live…'

He was interrupted by loud and feral snarls and growls.

'Sorry,' the Editor corrected. 'It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client.' He pointed up and the Doctor and Rose looked up.

'What is that?' Rose asked.

'You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite 5?' the Doctor demanded.

'That "thing", as you put it, is in charge of the human race,' The Editor stated, and the Doctor looked at him as he went on. 'For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambitions strictly controlled by its broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe.' The Editor paused. 'I call him Max.'

The Doctor grinned at him and nodded once, before looking back up at the Jagrafess worriedly.

Adam had gotten a Chip Type 2 put in his head. This information could make him rich and famous. He was going to use it. Rose had given him her phone. He couldn't see why Rose and the Doctor didn't take advantage of the resources at their fingertips. It was too much of a temptation for him.

'Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the boarders closed,' the Editor explained. 'It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote.'

'So, all the people of Earth are like…slaves?' Rose asked.

'Well, now!' The Editor walked closer. 'There's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave, if he doesn't know he's enslaved?'

'Yes,' the Doctor answered.

'Oh.' The Editor sighed, disappointed. 'I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm gonna get? "Yes"?'

'Yes,' the Doctor answered.

The Editor laughed. 'You're no fun.'

'Let me out of these manacles,' the Doctor told him. 'You'll find out how much fun I am.'

'Oh!' the Editor exclaimed. 'He's tough, isn't he?' He laughed. 'But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it. Just a little bit?'

'You can't have something on this scale,' Rose stated. 'Somebody must've noticed.'

'From time to time, someone, yes.' The Editor turned away. 'But then the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brain. I can see the smallest doubt, and crush it.' He turned back around. 'And they just carry on. Living the life, strutting about downstairs…'

Rose saw Cathica come into view behind the Editor. She was listening to this. Rose knew how this would go.

'…and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual,' the Editor went on. 'When, of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing.'

'What about you?' Rose asked. 'You're not a Jagrafess. You're human.'

'Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well,' the Editor pointed out.

Now for the next bit. Adam had sent some of the information to his home phone. He just needed to get the rest of the information. Once he'd done that, he could be famous, but he could still scam from these two. There had to be a lot of other places where he could get even more fame and fortune. He would make Henry Van Statten look like an amateur.

When the Editor started getting the information, Rose knew where it was coming from. She waited and, sure enough, the Editor showed them where he was getting it.

'You and your boyfriends!' the Doctor griped.

She knew he wasn't really mad at her. He was mad at Adam and she was the one who was there. Rose kept waiting. She knew what was coming next because she saw Cathica head off.

Cathica lay back in the chair. She'd had to push a dead body off, but that was not important. The whole human race had been played like puppets. And she didn't like being a puppet. The information that the Doctor had given her should be more than enough to stop this.

'Disengage safety!' she commanded. 'And spike!'

The Doctor smiled as he realised what was happening.

'She's reversing it!' he announced. 'Using what she knows! The pipes, the society, everything!'

The destruction caused Rose's manacles to come open. Without hesitation, she reached into the Doctor's jacket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He told her the setting she needed, although she already knew it, and she soniced the manacles around his wrists. He spoke to the Editor as she freed him.

'Word of advice,' the Doctor announced. 'Enormous body mass plus tons and tons of heat. Massive bang.'

The manacles fell away and they ran for it. Rose gave him back the sonic screwdriver as they went. Instead of going to the lift, they ran to Cathica.

'We'll be going,' the Doctor announced. 'I hate tidying up. Too many questions.'

'You got to stick around to explain it,' Cathica insisted. 'Nobody's going to believe me.'

'They might start believing a lot of things now,' the Doctor corrected her. 'Human race should accelerate. All back to normal.'

'What about your friend?' Cathica asked, looking over at Adam, who was leaning against the TARDIS.

'He's not my friend,' the Doctor announced.

He stood up and stormed over to Adam, his face like a thundercloud. Rose followed him. She quickly told him, 'Don't do anything stupid.'

'It's not really my fault,' Adam insisted as the Doctor grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. 'Because _you_ were supposed to be in charge.'

The Doctor didn't pay him any mind. He just shoved him into the TARDIS. Rose followed. As soon as the Doctor let him go and headed over to the console, Rose held her hand out pointedly.

'Phone,' she ordered.

He nervously pulled her phone out of his pocket and gave it back.

'It's my house!' Adam exclaimed as the Doctor pushed him out. 'I'm home. I'm home!' Then he seemed to remember the trouble he was in and turned to face the Doctor. 'Blimey. I thought you were gonna throw me out an airlock.'

'Is there something else you wanted to tell me?' the Doctor asked.

'No,' Adam lied. 'What do you mean?'

The Doctor strode around him and held the sonic screwdriver over the Mitchells' home phone.

'The archive of Satellite Five,' the Doctor answered. 'One second of that message could've changed the history of the human race.'

He turned the sonic on and the phone exploded. He strode back over to the TARDIS and Rose.

'Right,' he said. 'See you.'

'Wait, how do you mean "see you"?' Adam demanded.

'As in "goodbye",' the Doctor clarified.

'But my head…' he pleaded. 'I've got a Chip Type 2! My head opens!'

'What? Like this?' The Doctor clicked and Adam's head opened.

'Don't!' Adam clicked his fingers and his head closed.

'Don't what?' The Doctor clicked again and Adam's head opened again.

'Stop it!' Adam clicked his fingers again and his head closed again.

'All right, Doctor.' Rose held her hand up. 'That's enough. Stop it.'

The Doctor looked at her, but he stopped.

'Thank you,' Adam told Rose.

But she grinned and clicked, causing his head to open again.

'Oi!' Adam clicked his fingers again and closed his head.

'Sorry.' Rose laughed. 'I couldn't resist.' But her grin turned into a scowl as the Doctor spoke again.

'The whole of history could've changed because of you,' he said.

'I just wanted to help,' Adam defended.

'You were helping yourself,' the Doctor responded.

'I'm sorry,' Adam said. 'I said I'm sorry and I am. I really am. But you can't just leave me like this.'

'Yes, I can,' the Doctor told him. 'Because if you show that head to anyone they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quite life. Be average. Unseen. Good luck.'

'But I want to come with you,' Adam protested.

'I only take the best,' the Doctor answered, looking at Rose affectionately. 'I've got Rose.'

Then he stepped into the TARDIS. Rose soon followed him.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: A Human's Humanity**

'I don't understand this!' the Doctor raged as he read the results on the console computer screen. 'I just don't understand this! It shouldn't even be possible.'

Rose sat in the co-pilot's seat, chewing her fingernails. After they got rid of Adam, the Doctor had wanted to scan her to be sure that the torture had done any permanent damage on her body. What he found was not something even she was prepared for. It seemed that all of her cells had stopped ageing at some point. She had no doubt that it had something to do with Bad Wolf. She'd had it in her body once and it was clear it would be in her body again. They kept running into the words.

She looked at him as he crouched in front of her. She could see it scared him. He wrapped his fingers around hers. She wanted to slide into his arms and curl up into a pathetic ball but she knew it was still too early for him.

'Rose, can you think of _anything _that may have caused this?' he asked.

She shook her head. What could she tell him? She'd once opened a TARDIS and had the vortex swimming around in her head? No, of course not. He'd want to know where she got the TARDIS and how she opened it without the Time Lord who owned it knowing and stopping her. It was still too soon for him to know she was from another dimension.

He sighed heavily and stood up. Rose followed him to the console and watched him work the controls. The look on his face was one Rose had only seen when he was thinking about something he didn't like.

'Where are we going?' she asked.

'I'm honing in on the brainwaves of an old friend of mine,' the Doctor answered. 'If I don't have answers, she probably will. She can feel peoples' life force.'

Rose knew the TARDIS could hone in on the brainwaves of people that had been inside her, but only those people. She could hone in on them, find an appropriate era and land. The Doctor only did this, though, went he wanted to find someone in particular who could be anywhere at all.

'Why?' she asked.

'I'm worried about you,' he told her. 'It's not a natural phenomenon for a human to stop ageing. Wait.' He seemed to consider something. 'You don't have alien DNA anywhere in your heritage, do you?'

'No,' Rose answered. 'I was the first one in my family to get involved with aliens and I was once targeted because I'm a pure-blood human.'

'Right, so no alien cells.' He seemed to consider something else as he walked around the console, working the controls. 'You ever dated an alien, then?'

'Not…properly,' Rose answered. She smiled as she realised he was actually asking her if she'd shagged an alien. 'I haven't opened my legs for an alien, at least.'

He blushed a bit. She figured he was embarrassed that she'd seen right through that one. He looked up at her. 'You sure?'

'I've only had sex with two guys, both of which I dated,' Rose told him. 'Both were human. Mickey freaked out the first time he saw aliens and Jimmy was just too stupid to be an alien.'

'You dated Rickey-boy?' the Doctor asked.

'First, we grew up together,' Rose pointed out. 'It was kind of natural. Second, don't call him that. "Rickey" was Jake's boyfriend. Got converted into a Cyberman.'

'Oh.' He looked contrite.

'So who are we going to?' Rose asked.

'Evelyn Parsons,' the Doctor answered. 'I've yet to find a scientific explanation for what's happened to her, but I'll find it. She was born in 1180 in London. When she was eighteen, she stopped ageing. She's able to sense your life force, like I said before. She can also bring back the dead, but she also has to sacrifice another life to do it, so she doesn't do it very often.'

The TARDIS landed with a light thump. The Doctor took her hand and led her out and into the streets outside. It was late at night and it seemed to be a small country town. Rose stepped out and looked around.

'Where are we?' she asked.

The Doctor tipped his head back and inhaled. 'Australia. Early-mid 2010s. Lowest point of the Earth. That makes this the town of Raven.'

'Raven?' Rose asked.

'In the Valley of Ashes,' the Doctor announced. 'This place was the worst place to send someone back when Australia was a mass of convict colonies. They sent the killers down here.'

'Hm, explains why the names are so depressing,' Rose remarked.

'Yeah,' the Doctor agreed. 'Come on.'

The Doctor knew that Evelyn knew they were here. If she didn't show up soon, he was going to…well, he'd have to find her before he worked out what he was going to do. The town was small so he wouldn't have to look very hard.

He jumped when a body sailed through a metal roller door. The person slammed into a car on the other side of the road but still pushed themselves to their feet. Rose saw it was an orange-haired girl with violet eyes. She looked at the Doctor for a moment.

'Be right with you,' she assured him.

She ran back in, swinging through the hole she'd made when she flew out. Rose looked up at the Doctor. He had an expectant look on his face. Rose could guess.

'That's Evelyn Parsons?' she asked.

'Yes,' the Doctor said.

'He got away!' someone else in the building yelled.

A few minutes later, Evelyn came back out. 'Sorry about that, Doctor. The others got reincarnated and we were just dealing with a bit of an alien.'

'A _bit _of an alien?' Rose laughed.

'Okay,' Evelyn allowed. 'Straight out: it's an alien. I like this one, Doctor. She's got spunk. How long…'

'Is that the guy that you credit for the continued existence of the human race?' a blonde girl asked as she stepped out.

'Yup,' Evelyn said. 'All right, Doctor, guess I better introduce the rest of the Guardians. The blonde's Taylor Isuni. The brunette's Shayne Resoil. The redhead's Payni Silk and that's Tiara Shanning. So, like I was saying: how long have you had this one?'

'About six months, by Earth calculations,' the Doctor answered.

'Seems a bit experienced for a six-monther,' Evelyn remarked.

'My dad runs Torchwood,' Rose explained.

'Oh!' Evelyn laughed and nodded. 'That explains it.'

Shanning Stables was the motel that Tiara's mortal parents owned. She lived there. It was also there that the Doctor explained to the Guardians what they'd shown up for in the first place. Evelyn seemed confused.

'I had noticed it,' she explained. 'It's not immortality, per say. She can still die, I think. Shayne?'

'Her cells feel no different to ours,' Shayne answered. 'Except that they can't heal over immediately again.'

Evelyn looked at Rose. 'It's almost like you've touched some colossal power that you shouldn't have touched.' She turned her attention to the Doctor, 'How many options do we have?'

'Not too many,' the Doctor answered. 'She shouldn't have been _able _to touch any of them either. She was a human living in 2010, London when we met.'

'About two years ago,' Evelyn remarked. 'I was in London two years ago. Outside of the Cybermen ordeal and the ideology swap about five years beforehand, nothing big really happened.'

Tiara said nothing.

'Oh, well,' the Doctor muttered. 'It was worth a try. Now, what's this about an alien?'

They decided it was no good trying to find the alien until the next day. Rose was about to go to bed when there was a knock at the door of the room Tiara had given her. She went to answer it and found Tiara herself there.

'Hi,' Tiara said. 'I wanted to talk to you about something.'

'Sure.' Rose stepped aside. 'Come in.'

She let Tiara in and closed the door behind her. Tiara walked over and sat on the small kitchen island in the room. Rose watched her curiously. Tiara seemed to gather her thoughts before she spoke, 'Did the Doctor tell you what the Guardians are?'

'Not really,' Rose answered. 'Just about the immortality and that he was looking for a scientific explanation.'

'He can look for a scientific explanation 'til the cows come home,' Tiara responded with a slight smile. 'There isn't one. Maybe it's because of his age. The idea that there's no such thing as magic is too deeply rooted in his head. Or maybe there is a scientific explanation, but it'd be too complex. I don't think anyone would be able to find, understand and explain it. We're immortal and we can't die. We never get any older than eighteen and we have the souls of one so-called mythical creature each.'

'Why?' Rose asked.

'Because three men—Cecil, his brother, Randolph and a warlock called Genika—sold their humanity for immortality,' Tiara answered. 'Somebody had to stop them. We're still working on it, though. Cecil was an executioner and Randolph was a torturer.'

'So they were sadistic?' Rose asked.

'Very sadistic.' Tiara nodded, 'Taylor, Shayne, Payni and me were killed back in 1180. Evelyn was killed too, but she had the soul of a Phoenix. She just rose out of her own ashes. Like she said, we had to be reincarnated. There are five elements and five basic life-form functions. We each control one element and one function. The elements are air, fire, water, earth and spirit. The functions are the mind, the body, hearing, sight and life itself.'

Rose could figure where this was going. 'Let me guess. Evelyn can control spirit and life and you can control the mind?'

'And air, yes,' Tiara agreed.

'So, you know then?' Rose asked.

'That you're from another dimension and you touched the time vortex, yes,' Tiara said. 'I spoke to the others. It explains everything. Your body has reached a state far beyond what any human—even an immortal one—has ever reached before. Your mind's expanded, you're using a lot more of it. The Doctor would have you believe he's got a bigger brain. Not true. Time Lords just use more of their brains. They use 100%, where normal humans only use 10% of their brains. I use 65.5% of mine. You use about 50%. All because you took the vortex in. If you were to do it again, you would have a lot more control. More than that. Your brain usage would increase again. This time to 100%, just like his. But, either way, that's why all of this has happened to you.'

'I'll have to take the vortex in again,' Rose told her.

She picked up a magazine that was sitting on the table. One of the subtitles said "Bad Wolf". Rose pointed to that. Tiara squinted.

'"Bad wolf"?' she asked. 'What's that got to do with it?'

'We've been running into these two words everywhere we go, just like in my original dimension,' Rose answered. '_I _put them there after I absorbed the vortex. It was a message to lead myself there.'

'Well,' Tiara scratched her head, 'Evelyn says dimensions that have coincidences in events aren't having coincidences in events. I will say this, though. Next time, you'll have a lot more control over it. What happened last time?'

'The Doctor had to take it out of me,' Rose answered. 'It killed him. He had to regenerate.'

'Hmm,' Tiara looked thoughtful. 'I reckon this time you should be able to get it out yourself. Just remember what will happen if you don't.'

'I will,' Rose agreed. 'He's only got thirteen lives. But what will happen if he finds out about my higher brain usage?'

'He'll either figure it out—that you've seen the Time Vortex—or he'll assume you were attacked by a mind-attacking alien and saved by a telepath, simply because they're the only ones that can,' Tiara explained. 'Mind-attacking aliens generally prey on beings that don't use much of their brains because they're too weak to kick them out, or even notice them. Some of these mind-attackers open up all the channels in the brain so they can feed on the input. The feeding will eventually kill the victim.'

'And telepaths can sense these mind-attackers?' Rose asked.

'Yes,' Tiara answered. 'The more advanced your brain is, the less likely it is that one of these little buggers will attack it.'

'How come?' Rose asked.

'More defences,' Tiara explained. 'Like, if I wanted a prod around in the Doctor's mind but I didn't ask, he could put up a barrier and I wouldn't be able to get in. He's tinkering. He and Payni are building something. Should keep him distracted so that he won't notice me teaching you how to put up the defences.'

'Nice!' Rose laughed.

The Doctor looked the gadget over. He had to admit, Payni was very good with technology, especially for a human of the early 21st century. He ran over what he knew of this time and place. _Her father owns Silk Industries. _That explained it. She'd been raised her whole life around technology manufacturing so she knew exactly how it worked.

The first step was finding it. The device that the Doctor and Payni had built was designed to track the alien down. Once they tracked it down, it was only a matter of cornering it. There were three ways it could get out of the alley it was in, unless it had a teleport.

The Doctor and Rose would be coming along the south entrance, which had quite a few twists and turns along it. Tiara, Taylor and Evelyn would be coming down the north entrance, which was a lot more direct than the south entrance. Shayne and Payni, who were a lot more brash and impulsive than the other three Guardians, would be coming down the rooftops.

Rose smiled as she and the Doctor walked through the alley. If they weren't looking for an alien, she knew she would've fanaticised about the Doctor pushing her against the wall and having his "wicked" way with her. And she knew he thought about it because, in her original dimension, after his regeneration he'd actually admitted it with an adorable little blush. She hadn't lied when she'd said she'd never opened her legs for an alien. She and his counterpart had been kissing but they hadn't crossed the line yet. She'd make sure she crossed the line with this one first, though.

'What are you thinking about?' the Doctor suddenly asked.

She smiled. 'You probably don't want to know.'

'Okay, now I'm really curious,' he told her. 'What are you thinking about?'

At this point, he stopped her and turned her to face him. He was staring at her, trying to understand. She had already, early on, told him that she didn't appreciate anyone prodding into her head without permission. Now was the perfect opportunity to do it.

'All right,' she said.

She grabbed the openers of his jacket and yanked him forward. He made a slight sound of surprise as she kissed him. He was frozen, probably not comprehending that this was really happening, and his eyes were open in shock as she kissed him. She slid her arms around his waist. She was going to enjoy having the upper hand on his while she could. After all, she'd probably have to play it down later.

He suddenly seemed to recover himself. His lips moved over hers and he deepened the kiss. One of his hands cupped her head and the other pulled her firmly against his frame. She nipped his bottom lip and he groaned. As soon as the sound left his throat, however, he seemed to remember himself.

His hands grabbed her shoulders and he pushed her away, breaking the kiss. She saw the terror in his eyes a minute before he averted his gaze. She knew he'd never been close to someone like that. Never loved someone and kissed them, so this was a strange and terrifying ordeal to him. Finally, with all his emotions in check, he looked back up at her.

'What do you think you're doing?' he demanded.

'You asked what I was thinking,' she answered innocently.

'You were thinking about kissing me?' he asked sceptically.

'Threw you off, didn't it?' she teased playfully.

The Doctor laughed. 'You did that just to throw me off?'

'I might've done.' She gave him the tongue-in-teeth grin.

'You're gonna be the death of me, Rose Tyler,' he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her on.

Payni had to grin to herself and she and Shayne watched the alien from the rooftops of the alley, because Payni could also see Rose and the Doctor. She knew Rose had just snogged the Doctor. As much as Rose played it down, Payni knew the truth as well as the rest of the Guardians did.

Rose had come to be with him through her own choice. Not because she wanted the aliens and spaceships. She already had that at home. And not because of the time travel. She came to be with him because she loved him more than her own life. He would learn that in time.

It was no matter now. The alien had come out of hiding. It was time for action.

The Doctor was one of Evelyn's best friends outside of the other Guardians. She did feel guilty for lying to him and saying they didn't know what was up but he would find out eventually. The only reason they'd gotten away with it was because the Doctor didn't know the full ability of Tiara's mind powers.

Evelyn stepped up, she and Taylor flanking Tiara, as the alien came out of hiding. As they remembered, it was vaguely human in shape but it had purple skin that was covered in what looked like studs.

'You again?' it hissed. 'What do I have to do to get rid of you?'

'Leave the planet,' Tiara answered. 'The humans are not food.'

'You certainly aren't,' he remarked snidely. 'And where are your other two then?'

Taylor pointed up. Shayne and Payni were visible standing on those buildings. The alien snarled. Taylor then smirked.

'Oh, and we've got a couple of friends.'

As she said this, the Doctor and Rose walked around the corner. The alien saw the Doctor first. He squinted.

'You're not human,' he observed.

'No,' the Doctor answered. 'I'm the Doctor.'

Then the alien saw Rose. Fear entered its life force. Evelyn guessed it could feel the leftover power that was still running through the blonde girl. He took at step back and gasped, 'Wolf!'

The Doctor and Rose watched the fire burning. Shayne had lit it, with her power, to cremate the alien. A proper burial across the universe and a way to remove the evidence of its existence from humans who weren't ready for the existence of aliens. It still amazed the Doctor to no end how some creatures could be so scared of something—a wolf of some sort—that they would kill themselves. And it'd mistaken Rose for this wolf creature. The Doctor looked over at the Guardians, who stood there watching it burn. For a moment, all five turned their eyes to the Doctor and Rose with a silent goodbye.

The Doctor took Rose's hand and led her back to the TARDIS. He may not have found his answers today, but he would soon. He still had all the time in the universe, after all. Inevitably, he would find the answer. In the meantime, he would keep an eye on Rose. Also, he needed to understand why that kiss made him react like a…like a bloody _human_.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Empty Child**

The TARDIS was shaking and rocking more violently than usual. And the Doctor seemed to be in a right hurry. Rose had a feeling that she knew what was going on but she couldn't be sure unless she asked. Besides, it wouldn't do for the Doctor to get all suspicious. That was no fun.

'What's the emergency?' Rose called over the noise.

'It's mauve!' the Doctor called.

'Mauve?' Rose ran over to the console and to his side.

She'd been right.

'Universally recognised colour for danger,' the Doctor clarified.

Rose didn't need to ask "what happened to red". She knew that was just humans. The Doctor glanced at her. He seemed to realise what she knew. She knew it didn't really bother him. _'The day I know it all, I may as well stop!' _he'd once said in the dimension she'd been born in.

'Okay, I'm hacking the TARDIS computer into it.' The Doctor pulled her out of her musings.

'And that's safe?' Rose asked, knowing that it wasn't and it would prove itself not to be.

'Totally.' He reached around the console and sparks shot out as something exploded, burning his hand. 'Okay, reasonably! Should've said "reasonably" there.' Then he looked at the screen. 'Oh, no, no, no!' he yelled, jumping on it. 'It's jumping time tracks!'

'Then why are we chasing it?' Rose asked, even though she already knew the answer.

'It's mauve and dangerous and about 30 minutes from the centre of London.'

Rose looked at him. _It's the Gas Mask Zombies._ He didn't know that, but she did. She just had to decide what to do about it.

Rose looked up at the kid on the rooftop. She recognised him and she knew who and what he was. She didn't call up to him because she was unsure of her next move.

'Are you my mummy?' he called.

She had a decision to make now. "_To be or not to be". To get my hands all cut up or to look the old fashioned way? Oh, what the hell! Where's the fun in just looking for him when I have a way to make him find me?_

She could go for the barrage balloon again, but that would hurt. On the other hand, it was the sure-fire way to find Jack. She couldn't just _tell _the Doctor that an ex-Time Agent-turned-con-man had mistaken them for Time Agents and threw it at them, hoping to con them. That meant that the barrage-balloon-middle-of-a-German-air-raid route was the way to go.

'Sorry, love,' she muttered under her breath and heading for the rope.

The Doctor would not be happy when he found out about this.

'They're gonna get it one day,' the Doctor told a cat he found as he picked it up and stroked its head. ''Don't wander off'. One day I'm gonna find someone who gets it.'

When a phone rang, it took him a minute to realise where it was coming from. He put the cat down and walked over to the TARDIS.

'What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?' It didn't make sense. The phone in it was a dummy. How could it possibly be ringing? _Well! Only one way to find out. _He opened the panel and answered it, 'Hello?'

'_Are you my mummy?'_

Captain Jack Harkness looked over the air raid. _Bingo! _The girl was hanging from a barrage balloon. Clearly, she was either not to bright or didn't really think about something before she did it. Either that, or she had a superior who made her get in that situation but they wouldn't be watching her now. She'd have to report back.

'Excellent bottom!' Jack announced, checking out her behind.

'Really, man!' Algy lightly reprimanded him. 'A time and a place!'

'Sorry.' Jack lowered the binoculars and faced him. 'I was talking about something else, but you have an excellent bottom too.' He patted Algy on the rear as he passed him. 'I have to check something out. I'll be back.'

'You mustn't let him touch you!' the girl called Nancy exclaimed as the hand came through.

'What happens if he touches me?' the Doctor asked.

'He'll make you like him,' she answered, as if she expected him not to believe her.

The Doctor looked at the hand in the letterbox. It _looked_ like the hand of a four-year-old human child. Something really…odd had happened here, even by his standards and it tied into Nancy somehow. He just had to find out how.

Rose landed in the tractor beam.

'_Can you turn your phone off?' _Jack called through the speaker system.

'What?' she called back. 'Does it interfere with your equipment?'

'_Seriously, it does,' _he told her.

'Nobody actually believes that, you know!' she called, but pulled out her phone and switched it off.

Nancy snuck through the disused railroads. She crouched by one of the food pockets she'd made and started filling it up. When she looked up, she was shocked to see that bloke was there.

'Hello,' he said.

'How did you follow me?' she asked.

'I'm good at following, me,' he responded. 'Got the nose for it.'

'People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to,' she told him.

'My nose has special powers,' he announced.

'Yeah?' She smiled. 'That why it's so…' _No. That would be rude. _Her mother had taught her better than that with manners. Even if Nancy never took the really important bit to heart.

'What?'he asked.

'Nothing,' she told him.

'What?' he repeated.

'Nothing,' she insisted. 'Do your ears have special powers too?'

'What are you saying?' he asked.

'Good night, mister.' She went to leave.

'Nancy.' He stopped her. 'There's something chasing you and the other kids, isn't there? Started about a month ago? Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy? This thing I'm looking for. You know what it is, don't you?'

'There was…a bomb,' she told him. 'A bomb that wasn't a bomb.'

'Take me there,' the Doctor told her.

'No.' She shook her head. 'Guards. Barbed wire. You'd never get in.'

'Try me,' he challenged her.

'You really want to know what's in there?' she asked.

'I really want to know,' he said.

'Then there's someone you should talk to first.'

'Who's that?'

'The doctor.'

As Nancy turned her back, she missed the bloke's funny look.

Rose had been right. Jack had picked her up. Charming as she remembered him. But this time she hadn't fainted. She'd sat down as soon as she was in and asked for something to drink. He'd done as he was asked and then fixed up her hands. Then he handed her the paper.

'Captain Jack Harkness,' he said. '32nd Flight Squad.'

'That's slightly psychic paper,' she stated.

'How'd you know?' he asked.

'I have a friend that has some.' She handed it back. 'And you just handed me a card that says you're single and you work out.'

'Tricky thing, psychic paper,' Jack mused.

'You probably shouldn't let your mind wander,' she said. 'Besides, you've made the _mother_ of mistakes. Do I look like a Time Agent to you?'

'You're not a Time Agent?' he asked.

'Would a Time Agent be wearing a union jack all over their chest?' she asked. 'Or be flying in a box?'

Jack seemed to consider that. And after a moment, he seemed to realise that it was actually true. Time Agents didn't try to blend into the local colour.

'Whoops,' he muttered. 'Sorry.'

'Uh huh.' Rose knew he was really more embarrassed than sorry. 'Oh, by the way, I'm not trying to blend in. This is just what I decided to wear when I got up this morning. And the Doctor wears those basic clothes all the time. He once wore them to the Victorian-era. Just wanted to clear that up before you make a comment to him and make yourself look dumber than you'll already look to him.'

'Well, that's just great,' Jack muttered under his breath. 'What? Has he got a superiority complex or something?'

'Not really,' Rose responded.

'The bomb's under that tarpaulin,' Nancy told the Doctor as he looked through scanner-binoculars that he'd fashioned to look like they were pocket binoculars from the 1940s. 'The hospital's a little further on.'

'Right now, I'm more interested in getting in there.' The Doctor pointed to the "bomb".

'Talk to the doctor first,' Nancy told him.

'Why?' he asked.

'Because maybe then you won't want to get inside,' Nancy answered. She turned to walk off.

'Wait,' he called. 'Where are you going?'

'There was a lot of food in that house,' Nancy answered. 'I've got mouths to feed.'

'Can I ask you a question?' the Doctor asked. 'Who did you lose?'

'What?' Nancy looked at him, slightly confused.

'The way you look after all those kids.' The Doctor pulled the binoculars down and looked at her. 'It's because you lost someone, isn't it? And you're doing this to try to make up for it.'

She hesitated. 'My little brother. Jamie. One night, I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me. I told him it was dangerous. But…he just didn't like being on his own.'

'What happened?' the Doctor asked.

'In the middle of an air raid?' Nancy responded. 'What do you think happened?'

He accepted the point and looked out to the air raid in the distance. 'Amazing.'

'What is?' Nancy asked.

'The Nazi war machine,' the Doctor mused, mostly to himself. 'Rolling all over Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Until they get to one little island on the other side of the North Sea and they say "no". "No".' He looked at her. 'So go on. Save the world.'

She smiled and went on her way.

'Right, I'll do a search for alien tech to find your friend,' Jack announced.

'No need,' Rose told him. 'I know where he is.'

'Oh?' Jack asked. 'Where?'

'Albion Hospital,' Rose answered.

'Do I even want to know how you know that?' Jack asked.

'I could tell you,' Rose mused. 'But I'm playing guessing games with him. It'd hardly be fair if I just told you the answer, would it?'

Jack chuckled. He liked this girl. She was playing games with this guy. Now, what kind of games was another thing. What kind of games besides guessing games, that was. He really didn't doubt that they were also horsing around.

The Doctor turned around as he heard something behind him. A lame and aged doctor made his way in. The man looked at him.

'Are you the doctor?' the Doctor asked.

'Dr. Constantine, yes,' the man answered. 'Who are you?'

'I'm—Nancy sent me,' the Doctor told him.

'Nancy?' Dr. Constantine asked. 'That means you must've been asking about the bomb? What do you know about it?'

'Nothing,' the Doctor answered. 'That's why I was asking. What do you know?'

'Only what its done,' Dr. Constantine answered.

The Doctor looked around. 'These people were all caught up in the crash?'

'None of them were,' Dr. Constantine said. 'Are you a doctor?'

'I have my moments,' the Doctor answered.

'Have you examined any of them?' Dr. Constantine asked.

'No.' The Doctor's answer was quick and sure.

'Don't touch the flesh,' Dr. Constantine warned him.

'Which one?'

'Any one.'

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He went over to the nearest one and scanned them. Dani had never seen how he could understand what the sonic was reading out, seeing as there were no displays but he could.

It was a Time Lord thing.

'Here we are,' Jack announced. 'Albion Hospital.'

'Good.' Rose beamed. 'Open the hatch and let's go. My friend will be in there.'

'So, when you say "friend"…' Jack purposely trailed off as he did as she asked and opened the hatch. 'How disappointed should I be?'

'Very disappointed.' Rose skipped out of the ship.

The Doctor watched as Dr. Constantine turned into one of those Gas Mask Zombies before anything could stop it. Right now, he was _very _worried about Rose. She probably didn't know about this "plague".

'Hello?' someone called.

The Doctor turned and went in the direction that the voice came from. He was relieved to hear Rose telling whoever it was off for being so loud. Another pretty boy. As soon as Rose saw him, she came over.

'This is Jack,' she told him. 'He threw that ship at us as bait. He's a con man and he thought we were Time Agents.'

He thought they were Time Agents? Despite the severity of the situation, the Doctor laughed. And, added bonus: now he knew who to blame for the mutation in the humans in the hospital.

'Anybody can make a mistake!' Jack insisted, sounding put out.

'Yeah.' The Doctor's tone turned distasteful. 'And you've made the mother of all mistakes.'

'That's what _she _said,' Jack complained, gesturing to Rose.

'She's not wrong,' the Doctor said, leading them into the room he'd just come out of.

'This is impossible,' Jack stated.

'Right,' the Doctor agreed.

'How can they all have the same injuries?'

'Right.'

'The exact same injuries!' Jack turned to them.

'What about this ship you threw at us?' the Doctor asked.

'It was just an ambulance!' Jack insisted. 'It was harmless!'

'Mm hm.' The Doctor gave him a look that said he clearly didn't believe him. 'And I'm a 45-year-old human.'

Jack looked at him. He knew the Doctor didn't believe him. _Okay, but at least I know he's not human. That's the sign of a not-a-Time-Agent if I ever saw one. _Sure, it looked like it was Jack, but that med-ship was harmless. It was nothing more than circumstantial evidence. But Jack had made sure it wouldn't hurt anyone.

Rose stayed near the Doctor. She kept her hand in his, knowing that he was plenty angry. Jack was stewing now, pacing, still a safe enough distance away so he wouldn't hear her whisper and he'd be able to jump out of the way of the Gas Mask Zombies when they stood up.

'He really thinks he's not to blame,' Rose whispered to the Doctor, laying her cheek on his shoulder.

He looked down at her. She knew he was, again, amazed at how human she was. It was no surprise to her, really. She'd been born a human, despite the changes that had come over her body since she became involved with aliens. She understood that he was still jaded by the Time War. He sighed heavily.

'I know,' he whispered back. 'But that doesn't change the fact that he did it. He has to get that. Then, maybe I'll forgive him. Depends on what he does to fix it.'

Suddenly all the gas mask people sat up. Even though Rose was expecting it, she still jumped and yelped. The Doctor and Jack also jumped.

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

The slowly stood up. The Doctor pulled Rose back and Jack, following their example, back away himself. His hand went to his blaster for a minute as the three of them were boxed in against that door.

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Don't let them touch you!' the Doctor warned.

'What happens if they touch us?' Rose asked, mostly for Jack's benefit seeing as he was the only one who didn't know.

'You're looking at it,' the Doctor answered.

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

Rose moved closer to the Doctor.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The Doctor Dances**

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Mummy?'

'Go to your room,' the Doctor suddenly said.

They all stopped and silence descended. Rose and Jack looked at each other.

'Got to your room,' the Doctor repeated. 'I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I'm very, very cross. Go! To! Your! Room!'

They slowly turned around and returned to their beds.

'I'm really glad that worked,' the Doctor said, then he looked at Rose. 'Those would've been terrible last words!'

'Yeah,' Rose agreed, unlike last time when she'd silently agreed with him, 'really.'

The Doctor turned around. He realised he hadn't asked. 'How was your con supposed to work?'

'Simple enough, really,' Jack answered. 'Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable and name a price. When he's put fifty per cent up front—whoops—German bomb falls on it. Destroys it forever. He never sees what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con.'

'Yeah,' the Doctor remarked bitterly. 'Perfect.'

'The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners,' Jack announced. 'Pompeii's nice if you want a vacation but you've gotta set your alarm for volcano day.' He laughed, but that trailed off when he saw the look the Doctor was giving him, 'I'm getting a hint of disapproval.'

'Take a look around the room,' the Doctor told him. 'This is what your harmless piece of space junk has done.'

'It was a burnt-out Medical Transporter,' Jack insisted. 'It was empty.'

The Doctor frowned and headed toward the door. 'Rose, come on.'

'Where we going?' she asked.

'Upstairs,' he answered.

'I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living!' Jack insisted. 'I harmed no one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it.'

'I'll tell you what's happening here,' the Doctor told him. 'You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day.'

'Sonic Blaster 51st Century Weapon Factories at Villengard.' The Doctor took the Blaster and looked it over.

'You've been to the factories?' Jack asked.

'Once,' the Doctor answered.

'Well, they're gone now,' Jack told him. 'Main reactor went critical, vaporised the lot.'

'Like I said.' The Doctor handed it back to him. 'Once. There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good.' He went in.

'Don't worry about it,' Rose assured Jack. 'It was probably because of some conspiracy or some alien plot around there. That's what we do.'

Rose followed the Doctor. Jack paused. _'That's what we do.' _A conspiracy or an alien plot? What were these people? Self-imposed heroes or something?

'What do you think?' the Doctor asked.

'Something got out of here,' Jack stated. 'Something powerful. Angry.'

'Powerful and angry,' the Doctor mused.

Jack and Rose wandered into the room.

'A child?' Jack asked in disbelief. 'I guess this explains "mummy".'

The Doctor flicked on the tape recorder. For a few moments, they listened to Dr. Constantine talking to the child, trying to help him.

'Doctor, I've heard this voice before,' Rose stated.

'Me too,' the Doctor said softly.

'Always "are you my mummy",' she mused. 'Like he doesn't know. Why doesn't he know?'

'Can you sense it?' the Doctor asked, pacing the room.

'Sense what?' Jack asked.

'Coming out of the walls,' the Doctor answered. 'Can you feel it?' He looked at them. 'Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?'

'When he's stressed he likes to insult species,' Rose told Jack.

'Rose, I'm thinking,' the Doctor told her.

'Cuts himself shaving,' she went on, knowing he could still think with her prattling on, 'does an hour on life forms he's cleverer than.'

'There are these children living tough around the bombsites.' The Doctor started thinking aloud. 'They come out, looking for food during air raids. Suppose one of them was there when this thing, whatever it was, landed.'

'It was a med ship,' Jack insisted. 'It was harmless.'

'Yes, you keep saying. Harmless,' the Doctor responded. 'Suppose one of them was affected, altered.'

'Altered how?' Rose asked.

'It's afraid,' the Doctor stated. 'Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do.' He laughed. 'It's got the power of a god and I just sent it to its room.'

'Doctor,' Rose murmured.

He registered the sound.

'What's that noise?' Rose asked.

'End of the tape,' the Doctor answered. 'It ran out about 30 seconds ago. I sent it to its room. This is its room.'

The Doctor grinned as the banana appeared over his shoulder. Sleight of hands. Never hurt to practice whenever you could. He pulled Jack's sonic blaster out of his waistband and shot a hole in the wall.

'Don't drop the banana!' the Doctor ordered.

'Why not?' Jack asked as the three of them dived out the hole.

'Good source of potassium!'

'Give me that!' Jack took his gun back and closed up the hole in the wall. Then he tossed the Doctor the banana. 'Nice switch.'

'It's from the groves of Villengard,' the Doctor told him. 'Thought it was appropriate.'

'There's really a grove in Villengard and you did that?' Jack asked.

'Bananas are good.' The Doctor repeated his earlier statement.

Suddenly the wall started to dent and Rose grabbed his arm.

'Doctor!'

'Okay, so he's vanished into thin air,' Rose murmured. 'Why is it the great-looking ones always do that?'

'I'm making an effort not to be insulted,' the Doctor told her.

'I mean…men,' Rose tried.

'Oh, thanks!' the Doctor remarked sarcastically. 'That's much better.'

Suddenly Jack's voice crackled through the intercom.

Rose smiled up at him. She knew she could get a dance out of him. And she was determined to get it. The same way she did last time.

'I trust him because he's like you,' she told him. 'Except with dating and dancing.'

'You just assume I'm…' he trailed off.

'What?' she asked.

'You just assume I don't dance,' he remarked.

'What?' She laughed. 'You?'

'900-years-old, me,' he told her. 'I think you can assume at one point I've…danced.'

'Doesn't the world implode or something if you dance?' she asked.

'Well, I've got my moves,' he responded. 'I wouldn't want to boast.'

Rose got up and walked over to the radio. She turned up the music Jack had put on, Moonlight Serenade. The Doctor turned his head and looked at her. She came back over to him and held out her hand.

'You've got moves?' she asked. 'Show me your moves.'

'Rose…' he stammered. 'I'm trying to resonate concrete.'

'Jack'll be back,' she told him. 'He'll get us out. So, come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances.'

He turned off the sonic and tucked it into his jacket. Then he turned around and stepped off the ledge with an intense look in his eyes. She felt a warmth flood from her core at the look. She knew what she wanted to do, but she was going to have to get a dance out of him first. He took her hands and turned them over, this way and that, examining them.

'Barrage balloon?' he asked.

'What?' she played dumb.

'You were hanging from a barrage balloon.' He clarified impatiently.

He knew she was playing dumb.

'Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Middle of a German air raid. Union Jack all over my chest.' She moved her hands to emphasise the point. He didn't let them go. He looked up at her though.

'I've travelled with a lot of people,' he commented. 'But you're setting new records for "jeopardy friendly".'

'Is this you dancing?' she asked sharply. 'Because I've got notes.'

'Hanging from a rope, thousands of feet above London.' He looked at her face. 'Not a cut, not a bruise.' He released her hands.

'Yeah, I know.' She inspected her nails as, purposefully, she needled him in a very careless tone. 'Captain Jack fixed me up.'

'Oh?' he snipped. 'We're calling him "Captain Jack" now?'

'Well,' she pretended to consider it, 'His name's Jack and he's a Captain.'

'He's not really a Captain, Rose.' His tone was patronising.

'Do you know what I think?' she asked. 'I think you're experiencing Captain-envy.'

He nodded slightly, pressed his lips together and took her into his arms, as if to dance.

'You'll find your feet at the end of your legs,' she coached. 'You may care to move them.'

He took her hand in one of his and pressed the other to the small of her back.

'If he ever was a Captain, he's been defrocked,' he told her, his voice soft, low and intimate.

'Yeah?' she teased in a similar tone. 'Shame I missed that.'

'Actually I quit,' Jack announced, causing them to pull away. 'Nobody takes my frock. You know, most people notice when they've been teleported. You two are so sweet!'

Knowing it was pointless, but wanting to give the Doctor one up, Rose said, 'Are the words "distract the guard" pointed in my general direction?'

'Uh…I don't think that would be a good idea,' Jack told her.

'I can handle it,' Rose said, knowing that wasn't it.

'No,' Jack shook his head. 'I've gotten to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. Don't wait up.'

He headed forward. Rose looked at the Doctor, painting a confused and worried look on her face.

'Relax,' the Doctor told her. 'He's a 51st Century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing.'

'How flexible?' Rose asked.

This was all acting really. And she must've been doing a good job of it.

'Some many alien species, so little time.' The Doctor almost laughed.

'What?' Rose asked. 'That's it? That's our mission when we get out there? We seek new life and…and…?' She looked at him.

'Dance.' He nodded.

Nancy looked over as she heard someone come in. It was the Doctor. He gestured for her to follow him so she yanked the handcuffs to show him she couldn't, but kept singing. The Doctor came over, pulling a tube thing out. With a strange whirring sound, Nancy was free. She followed him out to where his two friends were waiting.

'There, see?' Jack asked. 'Just an ambulance.'

'That's an ambulance?' Nancy asked.

'It's hard to explain,' Rose told her. 'It's…' She looked at the Doctor and he nodded to let her know that it was okay. 'It's from another world.'

'What are you doing?' the Doctor asked Jack, as he fiddled with the controls.

'Opening the casket,' Jack answered. 'The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it.'

Suddenly sparks shot out of the control panel.

'That didn't happen last time,' Jack stated.

'It hadn't crashed last time,' the Doctor responded. 'There'll be emergency protocols. Captain, secure those gates.'

'Why?' Jack asked.

'Just do it!' the Doctor snapped and he shot off. 'Nancy, how did you get in?'

'I cut the wire,' she answered.

'Show Rose.' The Doctor tossed Rose the sonic screwdriver. 'Rose, setting 2854-D!'

'What?' Rose called back.

'Reattaches barbed wire!' the Doctor yelled, 'Go!'

Rose reattached the barbed wire as Rose soniced it.

'Who are you?' Nancy asked. 'Who are any of you?'

'Would you believe me if I told you we're time travellers from the future?' Rose asked.

'Mad, you are,' Nancy announced.

'Seriously,' Rose told her.

'All right,' Nancy said. 'I believe you. Believe anything, me.' She looked up at the air raid. 'But what future?'

'Nancy, I know how it looks,' Rose told her. 'But this isn't the end.'

'How can you say that?' Nancy asked.

'It isn't the end,' Rose repeated. 'I'm a Londoner, from your future.'

'But you're not…' Nancy trailed off.

'What?' Rose asked.

'German?'

'The Germans don't come here,' Rose told her. 'They don't win. You win!'

'We win?' Nancy asked, a smile on her face.

Rose nodded. 'Come on.'

'See?' Jack asked. 'Empty.'

'What did you expect to find in a Chula Medical Transporter?' the Doctor asked. 'Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?'

'Nanogenes!' Rose exclaimed.

'It wasn't empty, Captain.' The Doctor spoke to Jack again. 'There was enough Nanogenes in there to rebuild a species.'

'Oh God,' Jack murmured in realisation.

'Getting it now, are we?' the Doctor asked. 'When the space ship crashed, the Nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gas mask.'

'And they brought him back to life?' Rose asked. 'They can do that?'

'What's life?' the Doctor responded. 'A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a Nanogene. One problem, though. These ones aren't like the ones on your ship. These ones have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. But they do their best. Just one little body and there's not a lot left. But they do what they're programmed to do: they patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they go, off they fly. Work to be done, because, you see, now they think they know what humans should look like and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified four-year-old looking for his mother and nothing in the world can stop it!'

'I didn't know!' Jack exclaimed.

The Doctor just went to the head of the ship.

The Doctor and Rose watched. The Doctor wrapped his arm around Rose and pointed.

'Look!' he told her. 'Recognising superior DNA!'

In the next instant the nanogenes vanished and Nancy fell back. The Doctor and Rose ran over to Nancy and Jamie. The Doctor stopped beside them.

'Oh, please,' he murmured. 'Give me a day like this. Give me this one.' He reached down and pulled the gas mask right off Jamie's face. Underneath was the face of a little human boy. The boy gave a small smile. 'Yes!' The Doctor swung Jamie up. '20 years to pop music. You'll love it.'

'What happened?' Nancy asked, amazed she'd got her son back.

'Recognising superior information,' the Doctor answered. 'The parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them.' He put Jamie down to let Nancy hug him. 'Mother knows best!' the Doctor exclaimed.

'Doctor, that bomb!' Rose exclaimed.

'Taken care of it.' he told her.

'How?'

'Psychology.'

Suddenly the bomb came down, but was stopped in a tractor beam. And Jack teleported onto it. 'Doctor!' he yelled, 'I've got the bomb in stasis! But it won't last long!'

'Can you get rid of it?' the Doctor yelled.

'Yeah!' Jack yelled back. 'Hey, Rose?'

'Yeah?' Rose yelled up to him.

'Love the shirt!' With that last call, he was gone.

'Right, you lot!' the Doctor yelled, 'Lots to do! Beat the Germans! Save the world! Don't forget the welfare state!'

The people started leaving and the Doctor started hitting buttons on the ambulance.

'I'm setting this to explode as soon as everyone's clear,' he told Rose. 'History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?'

'Usually the first in line.'

The Doctor looked at her and grinned.

'Right, the Nanogenes will fix the damage and switch themselves off, because I told them to,' the Doctor told Rose. 'Nancy and Jamie will go to Dr. Constantine for help. Ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!'

'Yeah?' Rose asked.

'And everybody lives, Rose!' he announced, 'Everybody lives! Come on! Ask me anything! I'm on fire!'

'What about Jack?' she asked.

Jack heard the Moonlight Serenade and turned around. The Doctor's ship was nestled at the back of his. Jack got up and ran in.

'Close the doors,' the Doctor told him. 'You'll let the draft in.'

Jack closed the doors and turned around. He'd never seen a ship like this before. Let alone, been inside one.

'Much bigger on the inside,' Jack remarked.

'You'd better be,' the Doctor told him.

Jack bowed his head in submission as the Doctor dipped Rose. He knew when he'd been beat. And the Doctor had him beat. But that was all right. Rose laughed as she came back up.

'Okay,' she conceded. 'So you can dance.'


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Boom Town**

Dani and Morge walked through Cardiff Castle, towards the TARDIS. They both knew that Rose still hadn't told him that she was from another dimension and they both thought it would be far better if he worked it out on his own. Rose had also told them that today someone would try to use the Rift to rip the planet open. They walked in and Dani called, 'Knock, knock!'

'Since when do you knock?' the Doctor asked with a laugh, from where he was running maintenance.

'Good point,' Dani chirped. 'How was Women Wept?'

'Not too bad,' the Doctor told her.

'I loved it!' Rose announced.

'I think that was the whole point of him taking you there.' Dani laughed. Then she spotted Jack. She'd sensed him before, of course. 'Hello. Don't believe I've had the pleasure. I'm Dani. This is Morge.'

'Captain Jack Harkness.' He introduced himself with a flirt and shook her hand.

'51st century, yeah?' Dani asked.

'How can you tell?' Jack laughed.

'Where do you want me to begin?' she asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat. 'Turning an introduction into flirting? The accent? Or the movie-star enhancements?'

'Those are enhancements?' Rose asked.

'Yup.' The Doctor laughed. 'You didn't think somebody would look like that naturally, did you?'

She just laughed. Then she turned to Dani.

'Did you manage to find it?' she asked.

Dani knew she didn't need this but she handed it to her anyway. It was a bit confusing to Dani. Why would you need a passport when you had a TARDIS?

'I can go anywhere now,' Rose told the Doctor.

'I've told you, you don't need a passport,' the Doctor responded.

'It's all very well going to Platform 1 and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil?' Rose pointed out. 'I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything.'

'So what's this about a Rift?' Morge asked, leaning on Dani's shoulder.

'We just stopped off to refuel,' Rose told him. 'The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions.'

'And it can be pretty powerful,' Dani added.

'The rift was healed in 1869,' the Doctor explained.

'Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth,' Rose continued. 'See these creatures called the Gelth, they were using it as a gateway, but she saved the world and closed it.'

'But closing a rift always leaves a scar,' Jack went on. 'And that scare generates energy, harmless to the human race.'

'But perfect for the TARDIS,' the Doctor resumed. 'So we just park it here for a couple of days, right on top of the scar and…'

'Open up the engines, soak up the radiation,' Jack went on.

'Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!' Rose exclaimed.

'Into time!' Jack yelled.

'And space!' They all hit high-fives.

Dani snorted in amusement. 'You know, I know how clever you all fancy yourselves to be and all but humility never hurt anyone. Ever heard of it?'

'Yeah,' The Doctor said.

'Yeah.' Rose nodded.

'Yup.' Jack lightly slapped her cheek.

'Should take half an hour,' the Doctor remarked as they all stepped out of the TARDIS. 'Which means we've got time to kill.'

Morge looked at the TARDIS. It struck him how it was in an odd shape. He vaguely remembered Dani saying something about a Chameleon Circuit.

'Slight dumb question,' Morge said. 'Why does the TARDIS look like that?'

'Yeah,' Jack agreed. 'What's with the police box? Why does it look like that?'

The Doctor and Rose were now leaning on either side of it.

'It's a cloaking device,' Rose said.

'Called a Chameleon Circuit,' the Doctor clarified. 'The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands. Like if this was ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box and the circuit got stuck.'

'It got stuck because he stayed in 1963 too long,' Dani explained. 'Five months.' At Rose's look she said, 'Later.'

'Why don't you just fix the circuit?' Jack asked.

'I like it, don't you?' the Doctor responded.

'I love it.' Rose grinned.

'All right.' The Doctor looked over. 'Let's go and explore.'

They all started walking. Rose caught onto the Doctor's arm.

'What's the plan?' she asked.

'I don't know,' the Doctor announced cheerfully. 'Cardiff, Earth. Early 21st century. And the wind's coming from the…east. Trust me: safest place in the universe.'

_Not according to your girlfriend, mate. _Morge thought in amusement. And Rose's word was more reliable, seeing as she'd lived it before. But the Doctor wasn't to know that quite yet.

Dani was the first to spot it and she nodded towards it. The Doctor looked, then, seeing the problem, got up and snatched the paper. Silence descended as he read it.

'And I was having such a nice day.'

On the front cover was a picture of Margaret Blaine. Otherwise known as Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen. She was now the Mayor of Cardiff.

'Oh, she's got a teleport!' Jack yelled. 'That's cheating! Now, we're never gonna get her!'

'Oh, the Doctor's very good at teleports,' Rose told him.

The Doctor raised the sonic and activated it. "Margaret" reappeared, saw them, turned around and teleported out again. The Doctor activated the sonic again. She reappeared again, closer this time, saw them, looked worried this time, turned around and teleported out again. The Doctor activated the sonic for the third time. She reappeared for the third time and this time stopped in front of them.

'I could do this all day,' the Doctor remarked.

She raised her hands. 'This is persecution. Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?'

'You tried to kill me and destroy this entire planet,' the Doctor answered.

'Apart from that,' "Margaret" added.

Dani and Morge snorted in laughter.

'So, you're a Slitheen,' the Doctor stated. 'You're on Earth. You're trapped. Your family get killed, but you teleport out, just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station. But what for?'

'A philanthropic gesture,' "Margaret" answered. 'I've learned the error of my ways.'

'And it just so happens to be right on top of the rift,' the Doctor remarked.

'What rift would that be?' She tried to bluff.

'A rift in space and time.' Jack wasn't taking any of her crap. 'If this power station went into melt-down the entire planet would go shhh-boom!'

'This station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity,' the Doctor stated.

'Didn't anyone notice?' Rose asked. 'Isn't there someone in London checking this sort of stuff?'

'We're in Cardiff,' "Margaret" stated. 'London doesn't care. The South-Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice. Oh. I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native.'

'What have you got then?' Morge demanded. 'If you blew up the planet, you'd just kill yourself, unless, of course, you have something to save yourself. I don't think that little teleport of yours would be enough.'

'Bright lad,' the Doctor stated.

He grabbed the base of the station and flipped it up. When it was resting on his arms, everyone could see the wiring inside. Morge stared at it in confusion and Rose looked at it in interest while the Doctor, Dani and Jack stared at it in awe.

'Fantastic,' the Doctor muttered.

'Whoa,' Dani murmured in awe.

'Is that a Tribophysical Waveform Microkinetic Extrapolator?' Jack asked excitedly.

'Couldn't have put it better myself,' the Doctor agreed.

'Oo!' Jack took it from him. 'Genius! You didn't build this!'

'I have my hobbies,' "Margaret" responded. 'A little tinkering.'

'No, no, no,' Jack said. 'I mean, you really didn't build this. Way beyond you!'

'She probably stole it from some nice, unsuspecting alien,' Dani remarked, experimentally touching the bottom of the extrapolator.

'It fell into my hands,' "Margaret" stated.

'What is it?' Morge asked. 'A weapon?'

'It's transport,' Jack answered. 'You see, the reactor blows, the rift opens. Phenomenal cosmic disaster! But this thing, shrouds you in a force-field. You have this energy bubble—gggzoom!—so, you're safe. Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top and ride the concussion all the way out of the solar system.'

'So…it's a kind of surfboard?' Morge asked.

'A pan-dimensional surfboard, actually,' Dani said.

'And it would've worked!' "Margaret" snapped. 'I'd have surfed away from this dead-end dump and back to civilisation.'

'Yeah?' Dani challenged. '_Whose _civilisation?'

'How'd you think of the name?' the Doctor suddenly asked out of the blue, looking at the title of the project.

'What?' "Margaret" asked. 'Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh.'

'I know,' The Doctor responded. 'But how did you think of it?'

'Chose it at random, that's all,' she answered. 'I don't know. Just sounded good. Does it matter?'

The Doctor turned around. 'Blaidd Drwg.'

'What's it mean?' Rose asked.

'Bad wolf,' Dani answered.

'But…' Rose stammered. 'I've heard that before. Bad wolf. I've heard that lots of times.'

'What?' Dani asked.

'Everywhere we go, two words, following us,' the Doctor answered. 'Bad wolf.'

'How can it be following us?' Rose asked.

Dani's brow furrowed and suddenly the Doctor brightened up.

'Nah!' he exclaimed. 'It's just a coincidence. Like hearing a word on the radio, then hearing it all day. Never mind. Things to do. Margaret, we're going to take you home.'

'Hold on,' Jack said. 'Isn't that the easy option? Like letting her go?'

'I don't believe it.' Rose was excited. 'We actually get to go to Raxi…'

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her problem pronouncing the name.

'Wait a minute,' she told him before trying again. 'Raxicor…'

'Raxacoricofallapatorius,' the Doctor told her.

'Raxicorrico…' She walked over to him.

'Fallapatorius,' he told her.

'Raxacoricofallapatorius.' She got it.

'That's it!' the Doctor yelled, opening his arms and she jumped into them before pulling away.

'I did it!' she cheered.

'They have the death penalty,' "Margaret" stated. 'The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty with no chance of appeal. According to the statutes of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Doctor? Take me home and you take me to my death.'

'Not my problem,' the Doctor answered.

'Public execution's a slow death,' "Margaret" stated, still trying to appeal to the Doctor's sympathy. 'They prepare a thin acetic acid, lower me into a cauldron and boil me. The acidity is perfectly gauged to strip away the skin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid and I become soup. And still alive. Still screaming.'

'You're making me hungry,' Dani told her.

'Your race's mental defences sure can be disturbing,' Morge said.

'Yeah!' Dani laughed. 'I know!'

The Doctor ignored them. 'I don't make the law.'

'But you deliver it,' "Margaret" pointed out. 'Will you stay to watch?'

'What else can I do?' the Doctor asked.

'The Slitheen family is huge,' "Margaret" answered. 'There's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe.'

'But then you'll just start again,' the Doctor pointed out.

'I promise I won't,' "Margaret" told him.

'You've been in that skin suit too long,' the Doctor told. 'You've forgotten. There used to be a real Margaret Blaine. You killed her and stripped her and used the skin. You're pleading for mercy out of a dead woman's lips.'

'What about her?' "Margaret" jabbed a finger at Dani. 'She's from a fugitive race. The family Slitheen have worked with them. She's a killer too.'

'I was a killer,' Dani responded. 'My whole planet, my people, were destroyed when I was 5. The Doctor found me, took me in, raised me and reformed me. I'm what they could've been, if they were only given the chance. Not what they were. I was young enough to save. But you…killing is all you know. And when you grow up with that, there is no going back. Same way I can't go back to being what you are.'

Rose went back into the library to the Doctor. "Margaret" was still staring around the console room in awe. The Doctor was sitting on the couch in the library, with his nose in a book. Jack, Dani and Morge were in the console room, simultaneously watching "Margaret" and working on the extrapolator.

Rose touched his shoulder and he jumped. He looked up at her and she moved around the couch and sat next to him. She could tell he wasn't reading the book, so she pulled it out of his hands, set it aside and curled up to him. He immediately wrapped an arm around her.

'It bothers you, doesn't it?' she asked.

'What bothers me?' He tried to play dumb.

'Going to Raxacoricofallapatorius as an executioner,' Rose answered. 'You know what I'm talking about.'

He hesitated. 'Yes, it does. My people were going to kill Dani if they survived the Time War, simply because of what she was. I don't like going anywhere as an executioner. I kill only when I have to.'

She rubbed her hand soothingly across his midsection. 'I'm sure you'll work something out,' she told him. 'You always do.'

She felt him bury his nose in her hair and inhale. She smiled at the familiar gesture that had long-since been absent. It would turn into a habit soon. She knew that much. Whenever he was hating what he was having to do, or hating what he had to do, he would bury his face in her hair and inhale. When he spoke again, she almost wasn't expecting it, despite his soft tone, 'Where would I be without you, Rose Tyler?'

The Doctor was glad that Rose was near him. He certainly wouldn't want her anywhere else, except maybe near Jack, on the ship. Dani and Morge were too close to "Margaret" for any safety at all. "Margaret" was a little too cocky in announcing that the extrapolator was programmed to use another power source to wipe out the planet. Then the console cracked open. Dani, more familiar with the dangers of bright lights in the TARDIS (after all, she saw the Master swallowed by the Eye of Harmony), averted her eyes from it and turned Morge's head away from it. He seemed to get the message and averted his own eyes.

'Of course,' the Doctor mused critically, 'opening the rift, means you pull this ship apart.'

'So, sue me,' she responded.

'It's not just any old power source,' the Doctor announced. 'It's the TARDIS. My TARDIS. The best ship in the universe.'

'It'll make wonderful scrap,' "Margaret" said.

'What's that light?' Rose asked.

'The Heart of the TARDIS.' The Doctor answered Rose first, then he addressed "Margaret". 'This ship's alive. You've opened its Soul.'

'What happened to "Margaret"?' Rose asked.

'Well, she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS,' the Doctor answered. 'And even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship is telepathic, like I told you, Rose, translates alien languages.' He crouched down next to Dani by the skin suit. 'Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts.' He reached into the skin suit as Rose and Jack moved over to them and pulled out an egg. 'There she is.' He grinned.

'She's an egg?' Rose asked.

'She's an egg?' laughed Jack.

'She's an egg?' Morge squinted.

'She's an egg.' Dani nodded.

'Regressed to her childhood,' the Doctor stated.

'Are we gonna take her back and give her to a different family?' Dani asked.

'And tell them to bring her up properly,' the Doctor added. 'She might be all right.'

'Or she might be worse,' Jack pointed out.

'That's her choice,' the Doctor said.

'Will she remember being a Slitheen?' Dani asked.

'Not too likely,' the Doctor answered.

Rose was woken up when her bed bounced. They'd just come off from dropping "Margaret" into the hatchery. Rose sat up. The Doctor had dropped himself onto her bed with a wide grin on his face. She knew he was still hyperactive from not going to Raxacoricofallapatorius as an executioner.

'I get that you're excited,' she told him. 'But I was sleeping.'

'Humans!' He laughed. 'Waste so much time, laying around in bed!'

'Well, you're apparently a doctor,' she teased him. 'You ought to know why we humans—how did you put it? Oh, yes—"waste so much time, laying around in bed".' She sat up with a wicked grin on her face. 'Come to think of it, aren't you in my bed right now?'

'Nope!' he announced. 'I'm on it.'

'Either way,' Rose giggled, 'you know what you're inviting?'

'What's that, then?' the Doctor asked, looking up at her.

Moving quickly, Rose slipped out of bed and onto the Doctor. He looked up at her as she straddled him, a look of shock painting his features. She gave him the tongue-in-teeth grin. She hadn't done this last time. What she wasn't expecting was for his eyes to darken and she felt _something_ very hard and insistent pressing against her bum.

'Oh, to hell with it!' he growled and flipped her over.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Bad Wolf**

The Doctor landed in a small room. He looked up and around as he saw a young human girl coming over. She helped him up.

'What the…?' he stammered. 'Where am I?'

'In the house,' the girl told him excitedly. 'You got in the house! Great, eh?'

"Great" wasn't the word he'd use for it. His last memory before ending up here was some sort of transmat, pulling them all out of the TARDIS. Rose had been reaching out for him. Where was she? And where was Jack? This didn't look very good at all.

He had to find Rose and Jack and then find a way out.

Rose woke up as someone came over. She recognised him. It was Roderick. He helped her up. _I guess it's time. _It was time to face up to Bad Wolf and the Emperor's half-human Dalek forces. This would not be pretty, but at least she didn't look like a dumb blonde here.

'Thanks,' she told Roderick.

Jack came around. His vision swum for a moment.

'Here we go again.' He heard a droid voice. 'We've got our work cut out for us.'

'I don't know,' the other responded. 'He's got a good lantern jaw.'

'Lantern jaws are so last year,' the first said.

Jack leaned up as his vision cleared. He was right. There were two droids here. It looked like a droid version of that TV show Rose sometimes watched. The one…_What Not To Wear_.

'Where am I?' he asked. 'I was with the Doctor.' He suddenly registered what they said. 'Is there something wrong with my face?'

The Doctor soniced the area.

'You know,' Lynda said, 'I think we're the first ever competitors to get outside.'

'Strange sort of signals,' the Doctor remarked. 'Whole place is humming. I was here a hundred years ago, mind you.'

'A hundred years ago?' Lynda asked. 'You were here one hundred years ago?'

'They had a bit of trouble upstairs,' the Doctor remarked. 'Not too bad. Gave them a hand. Home in time for tea.'

'You're looking good on it,' Lynda remarked.

'I moisturise,' the Doctor said. 'When I was beamed in, I was travelling with two friends. Any idea where they might be?'

'I don't know,' Lynda said. 'There's a hundred games, just on this floor. There's about ten other floors of _Big_ _Brother_. There's _Call_ _My_ _Bluff_ with real guns, there's _Countdown_, where they have to stop a bomb exploding in thirty seconds. There's, uh, _Ground_ _Force_…_Wipeout_…_Stars_ _in_ _their_ _Eyes_. Literally, stars in their eyes. If they don't sing, they get blinded.'

'And you watch this stuff?' the Doctor asked.

'Everyone does,' Lynda agreed. 'Why don't you?'

'Never paid for my licence,' the Doctor answered.

'Oh, my God!' Lynda exclaimed. 'You can get executed for that!'

'Let them try.' The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver.

'And now it's time for the face-off,' Trin-E announced.

'What's that?' Jack asked, raising fists playfully. 'Do I get to fight somebody?'

'No,' Trin-E answered. 'Like I said: Face. Off.'

Jack listened. They were going to take his face off. And, clearly, there were further mutilations in store if they did that.

'I wouldn't come any closer if I were you,' he warned them.

'But you're unarmed,' Trin-E said.

'You're naked,' Zu-Zana added.

'Don't come any closer.' Jack flashed out a weapon.

'But…that's a compact laser deluxe,' Zu-Zana announced.

'Where were you hiding that?' Trin-E asked.

'You really don't wanna know,' Jack answered.

'Give me that accessory!'

Jack shot both of their heads off.

Rose worked to keep her face straight. She remembered these games and the answers to the questions she was asked. It turned out her memory was better than she thought it'd be. She just had to wait for the Doctor and Jack to find her. And she knew they would. Would she allow herself to be disintegrated, though?

The Doctor turned around. 'So who runs the place?'

'Just a minute.' Lynda ran to the light switch. 'Meet your masters.'

The lights came on and the Doctor couldn't believe what he was reading. That was actually a lie. He could believe it but he didn't want to. There was obviously a bit of power here, so it was very possible that the whole thing came from here. He stared up at the words, still not willing to believe it. But he had no choice. The words were there and that was the way it was.

BADWOLF CORPORATION.

'Adjust this just a bit,' Jack muttered, finishing his work on the defabricator which was now a gun. 'Ha-ha! Got myself a gun! Well, ladies, the pleasure was all mine.' He grabbed the gun, walking out and calling over his shoulder, 'Which is all that matters in the end.'

He figured he'd probably find Rose and the Doctor in the same place. A quick check told him that the rooms were shielded. Nethertheless, Jack did pick something up.

'Two hearts,' he muttered. 'Yes, that's him.'

'Hey, Handsome,' Jack said as he walked in.

'Any sign of Rose?' the Doctor asked.

He knew Jack would have thought she was with him but she clearly wasn't. They had to find her and fast.

'Maybe she isn't out yet,' Jack suggested with a frown. He seemed to understand the severity of the games. 'The rooms seem to be shielded. Better hurry up, though. These games don't have a happy ending.'

'Do you think I don't know that?' The Doctor snapped harshly. He kicked the machine he was working out. 'This stupid thing isn't compatible!'

'Here, use this.' Jack handed the Doctor his vortex manipulator. Then he spotted the girl. 'Hello. Captain Jack Harkness.' He offered her his hand.

'I'm Lynda Moss,' she told him, shaking his hand.

'Nice to meet you, Lynda Moss.' Jack sweet-toothed.

'Could you cut out the flirting?' the Doctor snapped.

'I was just saying "hello".' Jack defended himself.

'For you, that's flirting!' the Doctor snapped.

'Oh, I don't mind,' Lynda said, almost giggling.

Jack looked at the Doctor.

'It's this Bad Wolf business,' the Doctor told him. 'Someone's been messing with my entire life and Rose is trapped in the middle of it.'

'Do you think she knows?' Jack asked.

'I'd be surprised if she didn't,' the Doctor answered. 'I never had to give her a TARDIS key because she already had one when we met. Never quite been able to figure her out.' He shot Jack a slight, strained grin. 'And she loves teasing me with that.'

'I would too,' Jack announced.

'You love teasing anybody,' the Doctor told him.

'True,' Jack said.

Rose made her decision when she saw the Doctor. She ran for him. She decided it was really best to keep things where she could keep an eye on them.

'Watch out for the Anne-droid!' she called. 'It's armed!'

No sooner had the last word left her lips than: 'You are the weakest link.'

Her entire world went black as she passed out with a single, sharp scream.

The Doctor crumbled to his knees. He stared into the dust that was all that was left of Rose. _His _precious yellow and pink human girl. She was gone. He hadn't been able to stop it, like he should have.

He almost wished he'd taken his chance that night after they'd left Raxacoricofallapatorius. He'd started kissing her and he'd become intoxicated by the smell of her…the feel of her. It was the sound of his zip being slowly dragged down which had snapped him back to reality.

The next morning, she'd brushed it off. All the same, he never lost the feeling that the way he'd run out of there had hurt her. He'd wanted to, so damn much. But it was wrong. He was too old for her—by about 900 years—and they were a totally different species. He was no good for her, his hands covered in blood the way they were.

He was barely aware of the present. He barely noticed himself being grabbed and a gun being pointed at his head. He was barely even aware of Jack's screams. _His_ Rose was dead and she'd taken a big chunk of him with her.

The Doctor waited until the guards were leaving. He'd snapped back to his senses and he was not going to let Rose's death go to nothing. He looked at Jack.

'Let's do it,' he stated.

Jack jumped up and swung his fist, knocking the first guard out. Then he jumped up and kicked the cell door open. Two more went down. The last one came at them. The Doctor threw him into the wall and they now had free passage to floor five hundred.

'All right!' Jack called as they marched through the room. 'Step away from the computer. Keep to the side. Don't try anything clever.'

The Doctor aimed the gun at the controller. 'Who killed Rose Tyler? This is more than a Gamestation!'

'She's can't answer,' one of the humans said.

The Doctor turned to him. All the humans jumped back.

'Don't shoot me,' the human pleaded.

'Oh, don't be so thick!' The Doctor threw the gun at him. 'Like I was gonna shoot you! Why can't she answer?'

'But…' the human stammered. 'I've got your gun.'

'Okay, so shoot me,' the Doctor stated. 'Why can't she answer?'

'She's…can I put this down?'

'If you want,' the Doctor responded impatiently. 'Just hurry up. Why can't she answer me?'

'Thanks.' He put it down. 'Um…She's wired to the mainframe. The entire output goes through her brain. You're not a member of staff, so she doesn't recognise your existence.'

'What's her name?' the Doctor asked.

He looked up at her. It seemed like she was just as much of a victim as everyone else on the Gamestation.

'I don't know.' he answered. 'She was installed when she was 5-years-old and that's the only life she's ever known. I think you're right, though.'

The question was: who installed her?

'Doctor?' the controller called. 'Doctor?'

'I'm here,' he told her.

'My masters,' she whimpered. 'They fear the Doctor.'

'Who are your masters?' the Doctor asked.

'Hiding,' she whimpered. 'Hiding. Forever hiding. So dark. It's so dark. But my masters don't watch the games. I could hide you there.'

'My friend died in your games!' the Doctor snapped.

'Doesn't matter,' the controller insisted.

'Don't you _dare_ tell me that!' the Doctor just about snarled.

'My masters.' The controller gasped. 'They fear the Doctor!'

The implications sunk into the Doctor's brain as he watched Lynda reappear. He looked at Jack. Jack was grinning from ear to ear.

'It's not a disintegrator, it's a transmat!' he announced. 'Doctor, Rose is still alive!'

They both hollered and hugged in elation. Rose was alive! The Doctor could barely believe it. His hearts felt lighter. Rose was alive! Now they just had to find her.

Rose opened her eyes. She immediately saw the Daleks and backed away from them. Even after all this time, she was still scared of them. She breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. She knew the Doctor would find her soon and then he would come for her.

He'd done it before and he'd do it again.

The controller started giving the coordinates.

'They'll hear you!' the Doctor told her.

She yelled, 'No, my masters, no! I defy you!'

And she continued giving him the coordinates until she screamed. They all looked up. She was gone.

'They've taken her,' the Doctor murmured as they all stared up at where the Controller had been just seconds before.

'Here,' one of the staff stated, handing the Doctor a disk. 'This might contain the final coordinate numbers. I've been keeping a log of the transmissions myself.'

'Nice.' Jack complimented him. 'Captain Jack Harkness.'

'I'm Davish Pavel,' the man said.

'Nice to meet you, Davish Pavel.'

'The transmat delivers to that point in the solar system,' Jack stated.

The Doctor took the remote and hit the button. This display came up. It looked like just a collection of stars. It seemed to be empty. The Doctor knew better. Nothing was every the way it looked.

'There's nothing out there,' Davish remarked.

'It only looks like nothing,' the Doctor corrected. 'Underneath the transmat there's another signal.'

'Doing what?' asked Davish.

'Hiding whatever's out there,' the Doctor answered. 'Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner…there's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible.' He sat down. 'If I cancel the signal…'

He hit a few buttons and then looked up. He could barely believe what he was seeing. It really was too much to hope that they would die. Last time, it was a dying Dalek, contaminated with human emotions. Now, it was serious. These ones were as emotionless as Daleks were supposed to be.

'That's impossible,' Jack stated. 'I know those ships. They were destroyed.'

'Obviously, they survived,' the Doctor responded, his voice low and disbelieving.

'Who?' Lynda asked. 'Who are they?'

'200 ships,' the Doctor stated. 'More than 2000 on board each one. That's just about half a million of them.'

'Half a million what?' Davish asked.

'Daleks.'

'Alert! Alert! We are detected!' one Dalek announced.

'It is the Doctor!' another reported. 'He has located us! Open communications channel!'

A third one turned to Rose, who was cowered fearfully in the corner.

'The female will stand!' it ordered. 'Stand!'

Rose stumbled to her feet. The communications channel opened. The Doctor, Jack and the group of people. Rose watched the Doctor roll his shoulders as soon as he saw her. She knew she looked scared but she couldn't stop it.

'I will talk to the Doctor,' one of the Daleks stated.

'Oh?' the Doctor asked, putting on a faux cheerful voice. 'Will you? That's nice. Hello.'

He mock-waved. She knew, despite his dark humour, he was far from over what happened in the war and seeing these Daleks was bringing it all up. She also knew it'd be worse with them taking her away from him like that.

'The Dalek Stratagem nears completion,' the Dalek stated. 'The Fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.'

'Oh really?' he asked. 'Why's that then?'

'We have your associate,' the Dalek answered. 'You will obey or she will be exterminated.'

Rose flinched.

'No,' the Doctor stated with finality.

Everyone looked at him. The Dalek turned its eyepiece towards the Doctor.

'Explain yourself,' it demanded.

'I said "no",' the Doctor responded.

'What is the meaning of this negative?' the Dalek asked.

'It means no,' the Doctor answered.

'But she will be destroyed!' the Dalek exclaimed.

'No!' The Doctor stood up. 'Cause this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rescue her! I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek Fleet. And then I'm gonna save the Earth. And then, just to finish it off, I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!'

'But you have no weapons,' the Dalek stated. 'No defences! No plan!'

'Yeah,' the Doctor agreed, grinning. 'And doesn't that just scare you to death?'

_The Oncoming Storm. _And he now knew it. He'd probably heard the legends hundreds of times, but he only now realised they were referring to him. Rose felt her heart soaring. Then he looked directly at her. 'Rose?'

'Yes, Doctor?' she answered.

'I'm coming to get you.' He raised the sonic and cut off communications.

'The Doctor is initiating hostile action,' the Dalek stated immediately.

Rose jumped out of their way as they made for the access terminals.

'He must be exterminated!' another exclaimed.

Rose looked around the ship. More than two hundred Daleks surrounded her. It was terrifying, despite her knowing how it was going to turn out. And it became even worse when they all started chanting.

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The Parting of the Ways**

'You know the Doctor!' a Dalek snapped at Rose. 'You understand him. You will predict his actions.'

'I don't know!' Rose lied. 'And even if I did I wouldn't tell you.'

'Predict! Predict! Predict!' it chanted.

'TARDIS detected in flight!' another Dalek exclaimed.

'Launch missiles!' the first one chanted.

'You can't!' Rose knew they would anyway. 'The TARDIS hasn't got any defences! You're gonna kill him!'

'You have predicted correctly!' the first Dalek stated.

She also knew it would have no effect. They were using the extrapolator.

The missiles flew across space and slammed into the TARDIS, causing a nuclear-level explosion. But the TARDIS remained unharmed. Inside, Jack and the Doctor were at the console.

'The Extrapolator's working,' Jack reported. 'We've got a fully functioning force-field.' Then, as an afterthought he added, 'Try saying that when you're drunk.'

'And now for my next trick.' The Doctor pulled a few levers.

Rose turned around as she felt the TARDIS materialise around her.

'Get down, Rose!' the Doctor yelled.

She felt nothing but relief at the sound of his voice.

'Rose, get down!' he yelled again.

She saw why. She ducked as the Dalek yelled, 'Exterminate!'

It shot the Death-ray, the Doctor ducked and Jack shot. The Dalek was now no more than rubble.

'You did it,' she murmured, standing up as the Doctor came over.

'I told you I'd come and get you,' he said as he hugged her.

It was such sweet relief to be so close to him again.

'I never doubted you,' she told him, pulling back a little to look up at him.

'I did,' he stated. 'You all right?'

'Yeah.' She straightened his jacket. 'You?'

'Not bad,' he said. 'Been better.' He looked over at the Dalek and went over to look it over.

'Hey, don't I get a hug?' Jack asked.

'Aw, come here!' Rose told him.

'I was talking to him.' Jack stated, before hugging her anyway.

'Welcome home,' he told her.

'Feels like I haven't seen you in years,' Rose said.

Outside of the TARDIS, the Daleks gathered. Their eyestalks were trained on the timeship. Daleks could still get impatient and they certainly were.

'Patience, my brethren,' a dark ominous voice commanded.

Soon, the Doctor would step out.

'One minute they're the biggest threat in the Universe and the next they vanish out of time and space,' Jack stated, referring to the Daleks.

'They went off to fight a bigger war,' the Doctor responded, standing up. 'The Time War.'

'I thought that was just a legend.' Jack looked up at him.

'I was there,' the Doctor answered. 'The war between the Time Lords and the Daleks with all of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing.'

Rose rubbed his arm. The Doctor looked over at her and smiled tightly. Then he dropped all the tension.

'No use standing around here chinwagging,' he stated. 'Human race! You'd gossip all day. Daleks've got the answers. Let's go meet the neighbours.'

He walked out. Rose huffed in exasperation. She and Jack hurried after him. Jack, having forgotten about the extrapolator, pulled Rose back as they got to the door while the Doctor walked right out.

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

The death-rays bounced ineffectually off the force-field. The Doctor looked around at the Daleks. Rose knew, as long as the Doctor was with them, it'd all be fine. Jack's grip on her loosened.

'Is that it?' the Doctor asked. 'Useless. Nul points.' He turned back to Rose and Jack. 'It's all right. You can come out. That force-field can hold back anything.'

Rose went right to the Doctor's side. And, as he stepped out, Jack's mouth worked three seconds faster than his brain. 'Almost anything.'

'Yes.' The Doctor looked at him in a sarcastic fashion. 'But I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks.'

'Sorry.'

The Doctor stepped away from Rose and towards one of the Daleks. 'Do you know what they call me in the legends of the Dalek home world?' he asked in a threatening tone. 'The Oncoming Storm. You may have removed all your emotions but I reckon there's one spark left in your DNA. And that's fear.' His eyes narrowed. 'Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me, how did you survive the Time War?'

Suddenly a familiar voice drifted down. 'They survived through me.'

He turned in the direction of the voice and his eyes momentarily widened as he wandered over and stopped. Rose and Jack followed him. 'Rose. Captain.' The Doctor addressed his companions. 'This is the Emperor of the Daleks.'

'You destroyed us, Doctor,' he snarled. 'The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time. Crippled but rebuilding.'

'I get it,' the Doctor stated coldly.

'Do not interrupt!'

'Do not interrupt!'

'Do not interrupt!'

The Daleks yelled at him in turn.

'I think you're forgetting something,' the Doctor stated. 'I'm the Doctor and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got 5 billion languages and you haven't got a single way of stopping me, so if anyone's gonna shut up, IT'S YOU!'

The Doctor watched in satisfaction as they backed off, before turning back to the Emperor.

'Okey-doke,' he said cheerfully. 'So, where were we?'

'We waited here in the dark,' the Emperor continued. 'And we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth. The homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The human race is perverted. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured.'

'So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead,' the Doctor concluded.

'That makes them…half-human.' Rose's lip curled in disgust as she spoke.

The Doctor couldn't blame her. It was one of the most disgusting things he'd ever heard.

'Those words are blasphemy!' the Emperor exclaimed.

'Do not blaspheme!'

'Do not blaspheme!'

'Do not blaspheme!'

The Doctor turned around. That was just ridiculous. These weren't even proper Daleks. Rose was right. They were half-human, but not in a good way.

'Everything human has been purged!' the Emperor stated. 'I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek.'

The Doctor turned to him. 'Since when did Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?'

'I reached into the dirt and made new life,' the Emperor explained. 'I am the God of all Daleks!'

'Worship him!'

'Worship him!'

'Worship him!'

'They're insane,' the Doctor stated. 'Centuries in the dark is enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. You hate your own existence.' He paused. 'That makes them more deadly than ever.' He turned to the Emperor. 'We're going.'

He followed Rose and Jack back into the TARDIS.

'You may not leave my presence!' the Emperor screamed.

'Worship him!'

'Worship him!'

'Exterminate!'

'Worship him!'

'Exterminate!'

'Exterminate!'

The Doctor closed the TARDIS door and the whole thing caught up with him. He rested his head against the door and sighed. He felt Rose come and put a hand on his arm. He turned around and pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her hair.

'How did I let this happen?' he whispered, agonised. 'All those people…'

'It's not your fault,' she told him.

But it was.

'Rose.' Jack kissed her. Then he turned to the Doctor. 'Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. Life was so much easier when I was a coward.' He kissed him. Then he ran off. Rose looked at the Doctor.

'He's not gonna die,' she said.

He didn't say anything.

A beeping alerted the Doctor and Rose to the status of the Delta Wave.

'The Delta Wave's started building!' the Doctor announced. 'How long does it need?'

He ran over to the computer and Rose followed him. He knew she couldn't read it. He was just grateful for that.

'Is that bad? Okay, that's bad.' She read him like a book anyway. 'How bad is it?'

He turned abruptly and looked at her. He had to do this. He had to make her go.

'I've got an idea!' he exclaimed.

Rose slammed her fists on the door. She'd fallen for it again! Different tactics, she'd grant, but she still fell for it.

'_This is emergency program one.'_

Rose turned around. There was a transparent hologram of the Doctor standing there, just like last time. She turned around and watched it.

'_Rose, now listen.' _He'd been prepared again. _'If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We're in danger and I mean fatal. I'm dead, or about to die any second with no chance of escape.'_

'No!' Rose stepped forward.

'_And that's okay,' _the Doctor announced. _'I hope it's a good death. But I promised, at least to myself, to look after you and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home.'_

'I can stop you!' she announced, coming up to the side of the hologram. 'I can!'

'_And I bet you're fussing and moaning now,' _the Doctor remarked in an irritated tone. _'Typical! But hold on and listen just a bit more. Emergency program one means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do: let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it, no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all: one thing.' _The hologram turned and looked at her. _'Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life.'_

The hologram faded out. She shook her head.

'No!' she yelled. 'I can't have a good life without you!'

The TARDIS suddenly stopped and she ran out. She was back home. Back in London, outside the Tyler Mansion.

'The TARDIS will only open if she's absolutely positive you're prepared to lay down your life for this,' Dani told her.

'Well, I am,' Rose announced with absolute certainty.

'Well, then.' Dani smiled. 'We better start pulling.'

Pete hit the accelerator. Apparently, last time Mickey had been doing this. Now it was his turn. Dani had once described the TARDIS as indestructible. That meant they just had to keep pulling until the TARDIS saw they were serious and let go.

The truck flew forward and he hit the brakes. Jumping out, Pete ran back to see a gold glow coming out of the TARDIS a moment before the doors slammed shut. Then the TARDIS dematerialised, taking Rose back to the Doctor.

The Doctor looked around as the Daleks all rolled in.

'You'll really want to think about this,' the Doctor stated. 'I set this wave off, the brain cells of every living thing gets fried.'

'You cannot hurt me,' the Emperor disputed. 'I am Immortal.'

'Do you really want to put that to the test?' the Doctor asked.

'I want to see you become like me.' The Emperor answered, 'All hail the Doctor! The Great Exterminator!'

He grasped the lever. 'I'll do it!'

'Then prove yourself, Doctor,' the Emperor told him. 'What are you? Coward or killer?'

The Doctor's hands shook as he tensed, scared to push the lever. The impact of what he was about to do, hitting him. His hands slid off the lever. 'Coward. Any day.'

'Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness,' the Emperor stated.

'And what about me then?' the Doctor asked. 'Am I becoming one of your angels.'

'You are the heathen,' the Emperor answered. 'You will be exterminated!'

'Maybe it's time.' The Doctor closed his eyes and waited. But instead of death, he heard a warmly familiar sound. And that was not good.

'TARDIS materialising!' one Dalek reported.

The Doctor turned and whipped around and fell back on his butt as the door opened and the Huon Particles exploded out. His gut dropped like a boulder as he saw Rose, with the Vortex swimming around her head, step out.

'What have you done?' he yelled.

'I looked into the TARDIS,' she said, her voice a echoing melody. 'And the TARDIS looked into me.'

'You looked into the Time Vortex!' the Doctor yelled. 'Rose, no one's meant to see that!'

'This is the abomination!' the Emperor yelled.

'Exterminate!' a Dalek yelled, shooting Rose.

But she just held her hand up and rendered the Death-Ray ineffective.

'I am the Bad Wolf,' Rose stated. 'I create myself.' She waved her hand. 'I take the words. I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.'

As she spoke the words scattered and it all came together in the Doctor's head.

'Rose, you've got to stop this!' he called to her desperately. 'You've got to stop this now! You've got the entire Vortex running though your head! You're gonna burn!'

She looked down at him. 'I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the False God.'

'You cannot hurt me,' the Emperor stated. 'I am Immortal.'

She looked back up at him and her eyes blazed brighter than before. 'You are tiny! I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence and I divide them!' She raised her hand and a Dalek's atoms all separated. 'Everything must come to dust.' She raised her arms, 'All things. Everything dies!' Soon all the Daleks were having their atoms separated and turning to dust. Rose looked forward. 'The Time War ends.'

'I cannot die!' the Dalek Emperor screamed as his atoms were split and he did just that. 'I will not diiiiieeeee!'

The Doctor twisted around to face her. 'Rose, you've done it, now stop. Just let go.'

She looked down at him. He was almost knocked over again from all the love her saw in her eyes. Then he felt the skin-rippling sensation of Jack being brought back to life—forever. She smiled gently and exhaled. The vortex drifted into the TARDIS and the panels slipped shut. Rose's knees buckled and the Doctor lurched forward, catching her in his arms before she hit the ground. She rolled her head onto his shoulder and groaned.

'Ow.'

He looked down at her. 'How are you still conscious?'

She looked up at him. Her eyes were red and her skin was pale. She looked exhausted in his arms. A tired smile crossed her face.

'You still haven't worked it out?' she asked softly.

The question threw him. He thought back on the time that he'd known her. And it all fell into place. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have missed it? He could really have kicked himself.

'You're from the other dimension,' he breathed. 'You travelled with my counterpart there.'

'Bingo.' She pressed her face into his shoulder. 'This Bad Wolf thing happened there too. Can't get rid of me that easy.'

'Rose, you had the vortex in your head twice,' he told her. 'You could've died. You could die.'

'But I won't,' she murmured.

'How do you know?' he demanded.

'You won't let me,' Rose answered. 'You love me too much.'

He exhaled, defeated. 'Yes. Yes, I do.'

He leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were soft, warm and inviting. And she was more than willing, sighing gently against his mouth as she responded as much as she could. But she was weak. She needed rest. He broke the kiss.

'We'll continue this when you're stronger,' he told her.

She rested her head on his shoulder again and closed her eyes.

'I love you,' she breathed.

He slid his arm behind her knees as he stood, lifting her up. As he turned to the TARDIS, he had to turn back again because Jack ran in. He'd have to explain to Jack what happened to him later. Jack's eyes went to Rose.

'Is she…?' he began.

Rose turned her head and curled tighter into the Doctor's arms.

'She'll be fine,' the Doctor told him. 'She just needs some shut-eye.'

'I could do with some myself.' Jack groaned, following him to the TARDIS.


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Rose turned her head as she finally woke up. She opened her eyes and had to blink a few times to clear her vision. The Doctor was leaning over her almost instantly.

'Are you all right, love?' he asked.

'Yeah,' she said. 'We're both still alive, so that's a bonus.'

He smiled knowingly. 'Seen the regeneration, have you?'

'Only once,' Rose teased him. 'You regenerated into a pretty boy.'

'Oh, no!' he exclaimed. 'Please tell me that's not my next one!'

Rose laughed in delight. 'You'd really prefer to not know, wouldn't you?'

'Now that I think about it, yes,' the Doctor answered. 'Yes, I would.'

She smiled and grabbed a handful of his jumper. He probably took his jacket off, waiting for her to wake up. Without a word, she pulled him closer. It was a welcome change when he climbed over her, bracing his hands on either side of her head, instead of looking for some excuse to get out.

'So, what are we thinking of doing now,' she asked.

'Well, Jack's out being the intergalactic playboy that he is,' the Doctor said. 'I say I make up for running out on you like that the other night.'

'Good,' Rose said.

He leaned in and kissed her again. Rose smiled against his mouth. His kiss was a lot more hungry than it'd been last time and she was filled with heat. She knew she'd get exactly what she needed before this night was through.


End file.
